Why should I outsource my blogging?

Whether you're a web designer who wants to offer blogging as a service to your clients, or a webmaster looking for a low-maintenance way to improve your site's search visibility and ranking, outsourcing your blogging to a freelancer (like me!) is a compelling proposition.

Let's take a look at the arguments for webmasters first, followed by the benefits of outsourced blogging for web designers...

Blogging for your website

A great deal of the online literature relating to SEO argues in favour of optimising your site's text, without really mentioning the possibility of expanding the number of pages on your site.

The truth is, your main competitors - at least in terms of the search results - probably have more pages than you. Google prefers well established sites, and that means those that have been around for a long time, and those with plenty of good-quality content.

Try the following:

run a Google search for your main keyword (eg car insurance)

now run a Google site-specific search on the top result (eg site:moneysupermarket.com)

at the top of the results, check the number of pages found

In the case of MoneySupermarket, the entire site contains 385,000 pages and the car insurance section alone holds 2,100 search results.

How can blogging help?

Now look, let's be honest about this. Writing 5,000 words a day, it would still take one person 42 years to produce 385,000 pages of content. I'm not claiming that blogging will get your site to the same total size as MoneySupermarket's, or any similar-sized competitor.

However, expanding your site even to three figures from two is a step in the right direction - it shows the search engines that you're committed to adding fresh, new, relevant content to your website, while giving visitors something to demonstrate that you're an active and evolving online business, and not just a dormant, five-page starter website.

By increasing the total number of words on your site, you also create new search opportunities - even if you can never compete for the top spot on your industry's main 'ultimate' keyword, you can create an effective secondary long-tail strategy by having more content that contains full phrases or questions relating to what you do.

Why outsource blogging?

A handful of potential reasons - and hey, nobody's judging you if any of these apply to you:

you don't have time to blog

you're no good with words

you need search-optimised content

you need a writer with access to press release sites in your sector

The list goes on. It could be that you have a specific problem that I can't solve - but if that's the case, I'll tell you.

In the last month alone, I've conducted interviews with industry experts, researched statistics from a press release that weren't initially made publicly available, created my own infographic-style illustrations to accompany blog posts, and sourced information from press sites that require specific accreditation or pre-approved login details.

The fact is that outsourcing not only takes the weight off of your shoulders; it is also a way to get a specialist and qualified service, if you choose your freelancer carefully. After five years as an online journalist, I can get through doors that some other writers could not.

Blogging for your web design clients

If you run a website design firm, I can help enhance your service to clients - as well as helping to generate ongoing revenue for you.

The entire argument outlined above still applies - tackle it from the outset and you can avoid clients coming back to you, wanting to know why their five-page starter site isn't top of the list for 'cheap flights to Spain'.

I'm happy to work through you, so your clients order blogging direct from you at whatever markup you think is appropriate, and I deliver the content to you for approval or directly on to their site if you trust me enough.

For some of my customers, this already means an entirely hands-off revenue stream, aside from approving my invoice once a month.

For their clients, as described above, it means larger sites, more opportunities to appear in long-tail keyword results, and relatively low expenditure in any one month while content drip-drip-drips into their ever-expanding site.

I can also, of course, produce static content if you're working with a client who wants a website designing but has not supplied any copy. Normal rates apply.

Why not do it myself?

Sure, you can try doing it yourself. Nobody could blame you for it. I'm not saying you won't succeed. I'm offering my services to the people who need them - people who need: