We Had To Hire Editors the Hard Way—You Don’t!

Before we created an automated hiring funnel dedicated to content teams, we were a content agency. Our agency, ContentDistribution.com, executed one of the best SEO campaigns ever. We went from 0 to 1,000,000 organic visitors a month in just 18 months.

To continuously publish high volumes of top-quality content, we had to scale rapidly, growing from 1 to 45+ writers and editors in the last year and a half.

As our demand for new employees grew, we realized the hiring system we had at the time wasn’t doing us any favors. Our Content Managers had to deal with countless applications and wasted hours and days trying to figure out which candidates were as good as their application suggested.

We figured out we needed a different hiring funnel that would automate and systemize the way we hired editors. We invested $100,000+ and thousands of hours into creating that funnel.

The outcome was Workello—a fully automated hiring funnel that allowed us to cut hiring costs in half and hire better editors 10x faster.

In the next 10 minutes, you’ll learn where to find editors for hire and how to set up an automated hiring funnel to avoid the trouble we had to go through.

How To Hire an Editor—Best Job Boards You Can Use 

This is our pick of the best 15 job boards for hiring an editor:

Check out the rest of the article and find 25+ extra job boards where you can find high-quality editors for hire.

Why Hiring Good, Affordable Editors Feels Impossible

Imagine going trick-or-treating and finding a bowl with a few Milky Ways and tons of black licorice. Everyone’s running to get those Milky Ways, and the slowest among you will end up with licorice. The same goes for finding professional editors for hire.

All the best editors get hired in a flash. Dozens of different companies are hiring editors at any given point in time, so you have to be fast and have a more enticing offer than your competitors.

What this means is that the majority of candidates on any given job board are either underqualified or mediocre, at best.

In our hunt for top-quality editors, we figured out that every job board was overpopulated with inadequate candidates, and no matter what we did, we couldn’t stop them from applying.

If you want to hire the best editors, you must go through hundreds of candidates and evaluate and test each one of them.

The whole process must be swift so that you don’t miss out on the best ones.

We began searching for new editors on Upwork but soon expanded to a dozen different job boards. The issues persisted regardless of the job board we posted on:

• We couldn’t track candidates through different stages of our hiring funnel
• Job boards didn’t offer customization for hiring editors
• Portfolios were rarely a true depiction of candidates’ skills

Our Hiring Problems

Each time we posted an ad on a new board, the problems multiplied. We soon started receiving applications via Facebook, Craigslist, Upwork, LinkedIn, emails, and so on.

We continuously tried to improve our hiring process, but we couldn’t seem to figure out how to:

• Follow up with applicants on time
• Keep track of editors who we liked
• Track candidates by their status in our hiring funnel
• Sort out unqualified editors and follow up with qualified ones fast

We tried everything we could and realized nothing worked for us. We decided to create something new that would work.

The reason why we were able to deliver one of the most successful SEO campaigns ever is that we invested time and hard work into creating high-quality content. That hard work was lacking when we created our hiring process.

We decided to change that—our team invested time and money into creating an optimized, automated hiring funnel, and we came up with Workello.

Use Pre-Employment Assessments To Test Editorial Candidates

Most job boards are swamped with unqualified candidates. You need to sift through tens, if not hundreds, of applicants to find just one qualified editor.

You cannot be certain whether a candidate is up to par by just looking at their portfolio or conducting a simple interview. The only way to know for sure is to assess their skills.

Pre-employment testing has proven to be the most effective selection method, as you can see here.

What’s even better than testing is having one place where all your applicants’ tests will show up once they’re ready for review. Good skill assessment software should reduce the amount of time and manual work you need to put into your hiring process.

Workello allows you to sift through hundreds of portfolios and test just as many candidates in record time. Here’s how it works:

1. Sign up for a free Workello account and launch your pre-configured hiring funnel in less than 3 minutes
2. Post your job ad on any job board or hiring website and link to your unique Workello job ad
3. Watch all the applicants stream into a single dashboard
4. Send automated tests to filter out unqualified candidates with good portfolios
5. Reject candidates, invite them to interviews, and send offers in just one click

Eliminate Manual Work and Improve Your Pre-Hire Assessment Strategy 

With Workello, you don’t need to use multiple platforms to assess, test, interview, and hire any role on your team. You can test a technical writer, content writer, SEO writer, or copywriter and then move them through the funnel in just one click with our high-volume recruiting software.

Start your Workello free trial today to discover the fastest way to conduct pre-hire assessments.

Hiring Funnel of a Top 1% Hiring Agency

We knew something was off with our system, but we couldn’t put our finger on it. That’s why we decided to break down the entire process into tiny increments and see where the problem was:

1. A large number of monthly visitors comes from a large amount of top-notch content
2. Top-notch content demands having quality writers and editors
3. Finding the best editors for hire requires going through hundreds of applications
4. Getting to the best applicants requires sorting out bad ones swiftly
5. Sorting out bad editors was what we didn’t have a solution for

The bottom line is—you post a job ad, and editors will apply—no problem there. The problem was handling those applications, and we came up with a solution.

How Workello Redefines Hiring

We wanted to create a system that would be a one-stop shop for all hiring functionalities, so we wrote down a list of must-have features. It included:

1. A uniform platform that would act as a single place for applications that come from all different hiring channels
2. An automated system that would let us track the application status and show us where in the funnel a candidate is
3. A single-page dashboard to handle evaluating, testing, rejecting, interviewing, and hiring editors
4. An automatically sent editing test that would let us single out bad editors with great portfolios
5. An automated communication system that would eliminate contacting candidates and informing them of their selection process manually

Our first version was Google Sheets + Google Forms + Zapier. It was an improvement, but we wanted a better system.

Write Your Job Description Copy for Editors

While a job description won’t get rid of bad candidates entirely, a well-written one will deter a great number of them. To do that, your job ad needs to be as specific as possible and provide a clear description of the position you’re offering.

You should highlight every responsibility your ideal employee will have and every qualification and skill set they should possess.

Use the job description to state the criteria candidates must meet for you to consider them. It should also attract the best candidates. Remember—great editors find jobs easily, so use your job ad to sell your company and make this position more attractive.

Mention any career advancement and learning opportunities, benefits, and potential salary increases they can look forward to.

If you don’t know how to write a great job description or aren’t sure what exact position you need, you can access our database of pre-vetted job description templates. Click on the title of the desired role and adapt the template slightly to match your company’s needs—and your job ad is ready!

• Editor
• Technical Editor
• Content Editor
• Social Media Editor
• Chief Editor
• Online Editor
• Remote Copy Editor
• Legal Editor
• Managing Editor
• Senior Editor
• Executive Editor
• Scientific Editor
• Financial Editor
• Newsletter Editor
• Web Editor

Distribute Your Job Ad Across the Internet

When our agency was on a hiring spree, we didn’t have a dedicated person to handle the process—our Content Managers were in charge of it.

While it wasn’t a difficult task, it took a lot of time. Instead of focusing on producing content, they had to turn their attention to hiring new editors. This slowed down content production and publishing since higher-level team members had to do these menial tasks.

Still, it wasn’t easy delegating this to a new person dedicated to recruitment. We had to create documentation on the hiring process and educate them on it. That won’t be a problem for you—we’ve documented the entire process, and you can check it out for free! 

All you need to do is sign up for Workello for free and access the documentation we’ve created to delegate posting job ads on various platforms!

A Single Dashboard Where You Can View ALL Applications

With Workello, all job applications go to the same place, regardless of where candidates find the ad. Once someone decides to apply, they will do that through a Workello-hosted application form that is the same for every job board you post on.

This means that nothing stops you from posting listings on as many job boards as you want. Using the same form also helps with applications being in the same format. Candidates won’t be able to submit incomplete applications, and you won’t have to follow up with them to tell them to submit their portfolio or CV later.

Check out our application example.

Watch Candidates Stream In

You can use the same dashboard for every step of your selection process. The dashboard allows you to evaluate, test, interview, and send an offer to editors from the same page.

You only need to change their candidate status from the drop-down menu. Candidates are sorted with the following statuses:

1. Application Received
2. Application Rejected
3. Test Candidate
4. Test Complete
5. Reject Candidate
6. Interview Candidate
7. Send Offer

You can sort editors by their status and see where they’re at in the funnel. Each status has a different color so you can easily navigate between them.

Reject Unqualified Editors

Once you receive an application, you can let your editors and Content Managers access Workello to review it.

If they don’t like it, they can change the candidate status to “Application Rejected” and remove them from the funnel.

Workello will reach out to them with a pre-generated email to kindly inform them of the outcome. The automation eliminates the need to contact applicants manually and reduces the number of candidates that send emails asking about their application status.

Point, Click, Test

We’ve already stressed that an impressive portfolio doesn’t automatically mean the candidate is impressive as well. A portfolio consists only of someone’s best work that’s a finished product. It usually comes from a great writer and has been QA’d afterward.

While portfolios demonstrate previous experience, they don’t show the true quality of someone’s editing. Don’t forget that editors have their 1st drafts as well.

We hired writers without testing their skills—we learned the importance of testing the hard way. We promote from within, and all our editors first need to demonstrate the ability to write high-quality content to be considered for the role.

Even then, we have two separate editing tests for interested team members to accurately assess their editing capabilities.

You can’t hire an editor based on their portfolio alone; you need to make sure they can edit the content your writers produce meticulously.

One of the first functionalities we wanted to introduce with Workello was automated testing. One of the candidate statuses is “Test Candidate,” which makes Workello send an email with the following:

1. Congratulations on reaching the next stage
2. A link for a test (with instructions) and a field for submitting

The page with the test looks like this:

How To Make a Good Test

It’s common practice to complete an editing test when applying for an editing role. Still, you can’t expect candidates to edit a 2,500-word article that’s chock-full of mistakes and would take them 8 hours to complete.

You should use the test to assess candidates’ skills regarding:

1. Contextual editing
2. Spotting factual mistakes and gaps in logic
3. Grammar and spelling

You want to make a test that will give you an insight into candidates’ quality of work. That doesn’t mean that you can send them a 2,500-word article riddled with errors. After all, you’re asking them to do work for a job they may not get.

A good test is a balance between complexity and a candidate’s willingness to invest their time in it. Luckily, with a system like Workello, you can afford to be more thorough.

When you greet a candidate with fast email responses and transparency in your selection process, they will rate your professionality and will invest more time and effort in applying for a position in your company.

If you’re struggling with making a test, you can copy the one we used to hire our editors!

Interviewing Candidates

The moment your candidate submits their test, Workello will update their status to “Test Complete” automatically, and your managers will be able to assess their work.

Based on their test, they can then reject a candidate or invite them to an interview by changing their status to “Reject Candidate” or “Interview Candidate.” The former triggers a rejection email, while the latter triggers a message with a link where the candidate can schedule a meeting via Calendly.

The Candidate Status Page

One of the more annoying aspects of the hiring process is the constant back-and-forth with candidates who inquire about their application status.

Now, they will have access to the Candidate Status page that contains FAQs, information about their application, and the next steps in the selection process.

They won’t have to message you to find information, and you won’t have to worry about missing out on a candidate due to an unanswered email that got lost in your inbox. You can check out the Candidate Status page here.

Our Investment Paid Off Big Time

When we started, there was no hiring system in place that would help us land a top-performing editor and avoid bad ones.

As we were expanding rapidly, we had to spread to various job boards, which resulted in hundreds of applications each day.

It was a nightmare as we couldn’t control the influx of applications, track candidates, and get back to them on time. Many great editors never got to the next phase of the selection because we didn’t reach out to them in time.

We would also receive incomplete applications and have our Content Managers post ads, reducing their work on the content we wanted to create. We couldn’t find a proper solution, so we decided to create one!

Our company invested endless hours and $100,000+ trying to figure out what the best system would be, and we succeeded. Workello helped us:

1. Scale our team from 1 to 45+ editors and writers in less than 2 years
2. Decrease the cost of producing quality content by 75%
3. Execute one of the best SEO campaigns ever
4. Allow Content Managers to focus on their job, not hiring new people

You can get all of that now for the price of a single page of content!

Try out Workello for free! You can start accepting new applicants in less than 3 minutes from now.

Where To Find an Editor Online—Additional Job Boards

With an automated hiring funnel in place, nothing’s stopping you from posting your job ads on multiple boards and hiring the best editors. Some additional websites where you can find editors for hire are:

• Scribewise
• Virtual Assistant Finder
• Craigslist
• Scripted
• Muck Rack
• Writers Work
• Skyword
• HireMyMom
• ContentGrow
• Journalism Jobs
• Freelancer
• Copify
• Society of Professional Journalists
• The Writer Finder
• Freelance Content Marketing Writer group
• WriteLife Facebook group
• PeoplePerHour
• Storyhackers
• National Association of Black Journalists
• Pitchwhiz
• National Association of Science Writers
• CloudPeeps
• Certified Writers
• Masthead Media
• Alexis Grant Media
• Editorial Freelancers Association
• FinCon Community
• Pod Reacher
• Staffing agencies
• Mediabistro
• Zerys
• National Association of Hispanic Journalists
• American Society of Journalists and Authors
• WriterAccess
• Clarity