Web Content | SEO Writing

Questions A Freelance Writer Should Ask Prospective Clients

Whether you’re dealing with a ghostwriter, an SEO writer, a LSI article writer, press release writer or white paper writer, there are some things you should be asked. When you are choosing a writer for your business, there are some vital pieces of info that writer needs to know in order to do his or her job well.

For a client, being asked the right questions will illustrate that the writer you’ve chosen is working to understand your needs and help you sell your product or service.

What might you be asked? And, why?

Target Audience: A writer should know who they’re writing to. Writing style will differ for varying audiences. Knowing who will read the written work produced by your writer is something every writer should ask if it’s not very clearly evident by information you provide. If you are not aware yet of who your target is, you should spend time defining this. If you are targeting more than one demographic, you might need to take several marketing phases and approaches, doing one at a time.

Where The Written Work Will Live: A writer needs to know whether someone is publishing articles on their web, on a mini site pointing to their site, in a sales letter, on an article directory or in a blog. This knowledge helps determine the right tone and style of the work as well as helps a writer determine what content is appropriate.

Other items that might be discussed include whether the information needs to be timeless or not. If you don’t plan to update that information in the near future, you want the writer to provide information that is evergreen.

It’s also a good idea to tell your writer about your short and long term goals for the project. A writer can be an extended member of your team and very likely has a solid foundation of knowledge in your industry and / or with the business problems you are facing.

If you have any website analytics reports you’d like to share with your writer regarding keywords and traffic statistics, this information might also help your writer utilize specific SEO strategies when completing your work.

When you work with a freelance writer, the more information you provide, the better chances you’ll have of getting what you want the first time with little or no rewrites required.

If you are in need of a writer to help you sell more goods or get more website traffic, contact me. I’m Dana Prince, a web content writer who would love to hear from you.

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This post was inspired by James of the Men With Pens blog who writes a useful blog that helps writers and online entrepreneurs. I regularly ask clients the information contained in this blog when talking to them and James’ post illustrates why it’s so important for clients and writers to understand why sharing some information is so vital. Communication is definitely key in the writer / client relationship.