Hire Generalists

In the last three years, my content agency has…

• Evaluated 3,500+ writing candidates
• Received 1,000+ completed writing tests
• Hired 100+ writers
• Published 12,000 pages of content
• Driven 250,000 page 1 keywords and 30,000,000+ organic visitors

It took us hundreds of hours to build and iterate on systems to hire great, affordable writers on demand whenever we needed them.

At the same time, we were doing all this, hiring writers was a consistent challenge our community faced. 

Earlier this year, we made Workello available for anyone. Now, with about 90 seconds of work, anyone can hire writers in their sleep.

In the last six months, Workello users have:

• Evaluated 20,000+ writing candidates
• Received 5,000+ completed writing tests
• Hired 500+ writers

If you haven’t spent much time hiring writers, here is what it used to look like:

1. Getting dozens or hundreds of emails, DMs, and comments from candidates across multiple apps
2. Starting conversations with each candidate to learn their rates and other critical information
3. Losing track of conversations and candidates
4. Evaluating candidates with great portfolios and bad first drafts
5. Doing complete re-writes and spending more time editing than you imagined
6. Missing deadlines

We were sick of the process, so we fixed it.

In this step-by-step hiring playbook, you will learn how to…

1. Hire writers on auto-pilot, even while you sleep
2. Hire better writers than your competitors
3. Hire more affordable writers than your competitors

Step #1: 🔎 Sourcing Strategy

Here’s how to source generalist writers outside of your network. If you need niche writers, check out our 307 hiring resources to find niche writers. 

💰 Free versus paid hiring channels

Below we’ve listed both free and paid resources. I recommend using both, here’s why:

1. Paid resources will drive more writing candidates
2. Free resources will drive fewer candidates with any experience in content writing

A post on ProBlogger, Infostud, or OnlineJobs.ph will drive 100 – 150 candidates each. So if you posted on all three, you could expect approximately 450 candidates.

Add on Reddit and Facebook Groups, you can hit 500+ easily.

Check out the hiring stats from StateOfDigitalPublishing.com.

If you only leverage free hiring channels and you post on all 4 Subreddits and all 3 Facebook Groups, you might only get 75 candidates total.

The trick to hiring writers is…

The more candidates you test, the better hires you will make.

It’s that simple.

More writing tests = better hires.

✍️ Job boards specifically for writers (paid)

Think of paid job boards like ProBlogger or Superpath. These job boards specialize in writing jobs and writing jobs only. Writing candidates are located around the world, so we can’t pick the location, and most of the candidates won’t have experience with your niche (although some will).

🌎 Job boards in specific countries (paid)

In Serbia, we use Infostud. In the Philippines, we use OnlineJobs.ph. We can control the writer’s location, but these are general job boards for all types of jobs. Many candidates will not have prior writing experience. Very few of the candidates will have experience with specific topics.

👤 Facebook Groups (free)

There are a ton of Facebook Groups built to connect writers with employers.

Most of them are garbage, but there are a couple of good ones.

1. Cult of Copy Job Board
2. Copywriting Jobs
3. Nothing Held Back Job Board

🤖 Reddit (free)

There are three active writer-specific subreddits and a few more general hiring subreddits. These subreddits have a global candidate pool, and most candidates won’t have experience in specific niches, but some will.

• /r/HireAWriter
• /r/WritersForHire
• /r/WriterJobBoard
• /r/ForHire

👤 LinkedIn (free)

LinkedIn Job Ads have a very generous free tier. When you post your job, make sure you set the option to allow candidates to apply via an external link. LinkedIn allows you to select a country so that you can control for location, but these candidates are going to be generalists and most likely won’t have experience with specific niches (although some will).

Step #2: ➡️ Posting your job ad

✍️ ProBlogger

If you’re hiring generalists, ProBlogger is the place to post. Even if you’re going to use free channels, we always recommend posting on ProBlogger because it will guarantee hundreds of candidates.  It takes about 10 minutes to create an account and post your job ad. You can choose a regular job ad for $80 or a Premium for $160.

Choose the Premium, you’ll receive 2x as many candidates.

Select ‘Apply via Link’ to route candidates directly into your hiring dashboard.

Candidates that click ‘Apply’ are routed toward your Workello job ad to complete their application. Once complete, they’ll appear in your hiring dashboard.

Below is a ProBlogger job ad from a Workello customer.

👉 Check out the candidate application experience

🤖 Reddit

We’ve posted in a lot of subreddits. Here are the ones we recommend.

• /r/HireAWriter
• /r/WritersForHire
• /r/WriterJobBoard
• /r/ForHire

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

The results?

Crazy good (as always).

👉 Check out the Slingshot Content case study.

👤 LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to post free job ads.

👉 This next step is super important.

Select ‘Candidates apply via external link‘ instead of accepting candidates via LinkedIn or email.

This will push candidates straight to your Workello application page to finish their application.

If you select ‘Apply via LinkedIn’ or ‘Apply via Email,’ you’ll have to send your Workello application link to each candidate manually.

And there might be hundreds.

The whole point of Workello is to save you a ton of time, so don’t do that.

Select ‘Apply via external website.’

👤 Facebook Groups

These are great:

1. Cult of Copy Job Board
2. Copywriting Jobs
3. Nothing Held Back Job Board

👉 Now this next step is super important.

Do not include a link to your application.

Facebook will reduce the reach of your post with external links, and you will receive fewer candidates.

Instead, return in a few days and send the link to anyone who commented on your post or sent you a DM.

Copy/paste the URL of each post in each group back into your tracking spreadsheet.

Here is some example copy and an image you can borrow to maximize the reach of your post.

If you…

• Are a content writer with experience creating content for B2B and B2C clients

• Spent a lot of time perfecting your craft, have a strong grasp of grammar, and enjoy the creative aspect of writing

• Can produce expert-level articles on assigned topics

• Love creating compelling content and are a continuous learner

• Understand the importance of organic search and search engine optimization (and if you don’t, you’re willing to learn)

• Are organized and independent but love working in a collaborative and positive team environment

We want you on our team as our new content writer.

What you get as our full-time writer

• 2.5 days of paid time off per month

• 8 paid holidays per year

• Opportunity to advance into a Senior Writer position in as little as two months

What we need:

We want you to help our clients achieve their growth goals by creating content that connects with their target audiences and brings eyes to their sites. You’ll learn how to create content that ranks and brings clicks and revenue to the client. You’ll:

• Create engaging content for a variety of different clients
• Make intuitive and data-driven decisions to leverage content and achieve client goals
• Stay on trend with new insights for techniques to share and enhance best practices
• Implement editors’ feedback to your existing content
• Meet with your editors 1:1 and attend group team meetings

Here’s what that looks like in real life.

Return in 2-3 days to the Facebook posts you made, and drop a link to each commenter.

You should also check your DMs and ‘other’ inbox to catch any candidates that reached out directly.

🌎 Location based job boards

The #1 lever for controlling your cost of content is where you hire from.

A writer living in San Francisco needs to make $90,000/year to live above the poverty line.

That same person, except they moved from San Francisco to Thailand to teach English, will work for $24,000/year.

The #1 benefit of location-based job boards is you can target writers living in lower-cost-of-living countries where you’re confident you can overpay compared to local employers.

Here are some places we recommend:

Warning: This can be a lot of work. Most country-based job boards located outside of the US use very legacy, employer-unfriendly UX. In non-English speaking countries, you’ll have to do everything in a foreign language.

✍️ SuperPath

SuperPath is where you go when you need senior content roles.

Superpath is more expensive than any other recommend hiring channel, but if you need senior-level talent, especially in SaaS, this is the place to post.

If you just need content writers to write general B2C content, you can skip Superpath.

Step #3: ⚡ Automate in 90 seconds

If you execute the steps above without an automation strategy, you’re going to have a bad time.

Your automation strategy needs to:

1. Funnel all of your candidates into a single dashboard, sorted by status
2. Move candidates through your hiring funnel without switching between apps
3. Test dozens or hundreds of candidates in just a few minutes
4. Filter out bad candidates with good portfolios
5. Be respectful to all your candidate and keep them engaged

What took us years to figure out, anyone can now copy and deploy in a few minutes for the cost of a page or two of good content.

Sign up for a free Workello account in 30 seconds.

➡️ Create a new job ad

After you finish the 30-second onboarding process:

1. Click Job Ads
2. Click ‘Add a new job.’

We’ve pre-written your job description, and it takes just a few moments to edit it to align with your brand.

👉 Check out what the application looks like for candidates 

➡️ Create your assessment

Your writing assessment is also pre-written and takes just a few moments to align it with the niche you’re hiring for.

Our assessment was created to balance comprehensiveness and test completion rate, and we’ve A/B tested this across thousands of candidates.

The average Workello user sees a 50-80% test completion rate depending on how engaging your brand is to candidates.

For example, when CopyAI used Workello to hire writers from their community for their blog, they had a 100% test completion rate.

👉 See the writing assessment from the candidate’s POV

➡️ Install Slack

Authenticate Slack during the job ad setup to get daily reports on your hiring pipeline.

🥳 You’re done!

You’re ready to start funneling candidates to your job application.

Your application form URL will look something like this: https://app.workello.com/application-portal/content-distribution-test-job-ad

📨 Distribute your link

Use the sourcing strategies above to distribute your link to candidates.

🔎 Evaluating Candidates

Candidates will begin streaming into your hiring dashboard under ‘New Candidates’

Open the candidate card, read the candidate’s cover letter and check out their portfolio.

1. [Reject Application] to send the candidate a very polite rejection email.
2. [Invite to Test] to send the candidate an email with an invitation to submit a written assessment/test.

🏝️ Sit back, relax, and wait for assessments to roll in

Completed tests appear under ‘Assessment Submitted.’

Click on the candidate to open the candidate card and review their test.

• [Fail Assessment] to send the candidate a very polite rejection email, thanking them for their time
• [Pass Assessment] to send the candidate to a holding status while you review the other submitted tests
• [Invite to Interview] to send the candidate an email with your Calendly URL to book an interview

Beat your competition

SEOs think about user experience.

Leaders think about candidate experience.

The #1 decision you’ll make as a leader is who you decide to hire.

Depending on that first decision, the next stage of your journey is either easy, hard, or impossible.

Your goals are going to be so much easier to hit, and you’ll go so much further with a high-performing team.

But the top 5% of candidates have options.

They’re being evaluated by multiple employers right now.

And the best candidates want to work for the best employers.

Workello is designed to keep your best candidates engaged and invested in using their valuable time to take your writing test so you can hire them.

The candidate status page tells candidates exactly where they are in your hiring process, what to expect next, and how long it will take to hear back from you.

👉 Check out the candidate experience

Workello just works.

Need more help?

Earlier this year, we began secretly helping companies build and scale in-house content teams. It turns out content velocity doesn’t just work when we do it. It works when anyone follows our SOPs.