Hiring Writers Is Arduous—We Learned That the Hard Way

Before we developed Workello, we were Content Distribution—an ambitious agency dedicated to producing high-quality content. We ran one of the most successful SEO campaigns of all time and grew our client from 0 to 1,000,000 organic visitors a month in less than 18 months!

As we took on bigger projects and the demand for content increased, we needed to hire more writers. This meant we had to evaluate thousands of candidates to put together a team of top-performers, but, within a year and a half, we grew our team from 1 to 45 members. 

The hiring spree started pretty shakily, and it soon became evident that our hiring system wasn’t optimized to deal with a flood of new candidates. Our editors and content managers had to dedicate up to two hours every day to posting job ads and reviewing applications. Candidates contacted us through various channels, submitted incomplete applications, and sent us portfolios in various formats.  

In such chaos, we couldn’t keep track of where each candidate was in our hiring funnel, and we often missed some of the applicants completely. It took us a lot of time to go over each application, most of which were from unqualified candidates. And while we were wasting time weeding them out, we missed many great ones. 

To hire writers faster, we needed an optimized and automated hiring system that would be able to handle a sea of applications and streamline our hiring process. A combination of over $100,000 and countless hours of research and development led us to a solution—Workello!

In the next 10 minutes, you will discover where to find newsletter writers for hire, how to circumvent the difficulties surrounding hiring writers, and how to use automation to avoid all the troubles we had. 

Top 15 Job Boards for Finding Newsletter Writers for Hire

Check out our pick of the 15 top hiring boards for hiring newsletter writers:

Read on to discover more job boards where you can hire newsletter writers.

Why Is Hiring Newsletter Writers So Tough

Your goal is to find that one top-performing newsletter writer. So is everyone else’s. Competition for qualified writers, especially those focusing on a particular format or a specific niche, is fierce. Job boards cannot source skilled writers as quickly as they get hired. 

If you don’t step up your game, you are bound to settle for writers who are not as great. 

Most of the users on job boards are unqualified and filtering them out is the biggest challenge you will have to face. You will have to review dozens of applications and evaluate the competencies of many candidates before you find a single top-performer. 

It is a time-consuming process and the main reason you’re struggling to find and hire great writers—companies with a more efficient hiring system in place will snatch them before you get the chance! 

When we started hiring writers, we looked for them on various platforms, and we always faced the same problems:

• We couldn’t track candidates as they moved through our hiring funnel
• Most job boards aren’t designed for evaluating and hiring writers
• Portfolios we received didn’t usually reflect candidates’ actual writing skills

What We Struggled With the Most

Initially, we only used one platform to source candidates. Since most of the applicants were unqualified, we decided to widen our search and increase our chances of finding top-performers. But our problems only grew. 

We always had more than enough applications. What we didn’t have was a system to deal with them efficiently. And when we started receiving even more applications, we got inundated entirely. 

With applications coming from all those different sources, we had difficulties:

• Categorizing candidates by their status in our hiring funnel
• Filtering out bad candidates swiftly and efficiently
• Reaching out to promising candidates before others
• Responding to all the applications

Nothing on the market could solve all of these issues at once. That was a great incentive to create our own solution. 

We jotted down all the features that a perfect hiring funnel should have and invested thousands of hours and over $100,000 in developing an optimized and fully-automated hiring system that would solve all of our troubles. The end result was Workello!

Use Pre-Hire Testing To Find the Best Writer

Regardless of what job boards you advertise on, you’ll always end up with more unqualified candidates than top ones. No applicant will admit they don’t know what they’re doing, and their portfolios will inevitably paint a positive story.

If you don’t want to hire someone and discover they’re underqualified the hard way, you need to enhance your hiring process and introduce pre-hire testing.

Tests will let you gauge the candidates’ writing quality first-hand. The issue is—with hundreds of applicants to deal with, you’ll quickly lose control and won’t know where in the funnel each candidate is. You need skill assessment software to sort that out for you. 

Workello automates the entire hiring process and provides support for hassle-free testing. You only need to create a free account and:

1. Set up your hiring funnel in under 3 minutes with the pre-configured settings
2. Add a Workello link to all your job ads (existing or new)
3. Wait for applications to arrive
4. Send tests to filter out poor candidates with impressive portfolios
5. Interview, reject, and hire candidates from your dashboard

Streamline Your Candidate Assessment Process With Workello

Workello is high-volume recruiting software that will help you set up your job post, assess candidates, send and log tests, and review them. You’ll be able to reject candidates, invite them for an interview, and extend offers without ever leaving your dashboard.

Workello can help you test content writers, regardless of your specific needs. With our pre-hire assessment software, you can test copywriters, SEO copywriters, SEO writers, and technical writers. Need to fill other roles on your content team? Test content marketers and related roles in Workello effortlessly.

Sign up for Workello for free and streamline your hiring process effortlessly.

Hiring Funnel of a Top 1% Hiring Agency 

It was evident that our hiring system was deeply flawed, but we couldn’t put the finger on what was wrong exactly. So we broke down the process to see where the hitch was. 

Here is what we came up with:

1. The number of monthly website visitors is proportional to the amount of content we publish
2. Content that attracts visitors is high-quality and engaging
3. Only competent writers can create such content
4. To find top-performing newsletter writers for hire, we have to review hundreds of applications
5. Finding great candidates fast requires filtering out unqualified candidates efficiently
6. Weeding out bad candidates quickly was exceptionally challenging

We always had more than enough applications; we never had an efficient and reliable way to deal with them.

We listed all the features of a system that would allow our hiring funnel to function properly:

1. A unified platform that would display all applications from all different channels in a single place
2. An option to sort out candidates according to their status in our hiring funnel
3. A system that would allow us to track the number of applicants in each stage of our hiring process
4. A single dashboard from which we can assess, test, reject, invite for interviews, and send offers
5. An option to send writing tests automatically so we can quickly filter out bad writers with amazing portfolios
6. An automated communication system that informs candidates when their application status changes

Before we had Workello, we used a combination of Google Sheets, Google Forms, and Zapier. It was a step in the right direction, bit it was still far from perfect. 

A Good Newsletter Writer Job Description Copy Can Work Miracles

Bad candidates will always send in their applications. There is nothing you can do to avoid it entirely, but you can significantly reduce the number of such applicants with a good job ad. Writing a detailed and specific job description will discourage  a large portion of unqualified candidates from sending in their resumes. 

To attract capable writers, you have to state all the requirements candidates must fulfill. You also need to be precise about the responsibilities the position of a newsletter writer entails. Make your ad neat and well-structured, so candidates can easily find the information they need.

As we have already established, the best writers get hired quickly. You need to incentivize them to pick you over somebody else. Include the salary you are offering, career advancement opportunities, and any other perks that make qualified candidates interested in your company. 

If you are unsure what a good job description should look like or need more information regarding the exact nature of the role you are looking for, Workello has your back. We have an extensive database of pre-made job description templates you can quickly modify and post on any job board you want. Here are some examples:

• Writer
• Content Writer
• Senior Writer
• Copywriter
• SEO Writer
• Senior Copywriter
• Freelance Writer
• Technical Writer
• Research Writer
• Instructional Writer
• Fashion Writer
• Business Writer
• Political Writer
• Contract Writer
• Press Release Writer

Distribute Your Job Ad Across the Internet

When we began hiring writers, we didn’t have a dedicated recruiter. Our editors and content managers were busy posting job ads on numerous platforms and reviewing incoming applications. It’s not a difficult task, but it is time-consuming. 

As we grew and our need for more skilled writers increased, posting job ads and handling applications became too much for our editors and managers to handle. Their primary responsibilities were suffering, and the entire situation became unmanageable. 

Delegating search for qualified candidates to a Recruitment Manager is a valid option. But you will first have to document your whole hiring process and then train them. 

We documented everything, but you don’t have to! 

When you sign up for Workello for free, you’ll get access to our playbooks and learn how to delegate posting job ads to someone else!

A Single Dashboard to Make Your Hiring Process Easier

Whichever platform candidates use to apply for a job in your company, their applications will end up in the same place—your Workello dashboard. All the applications will also be in the same format, and incomplete submissions will become a thing of the past!

From your dashboard, your editors can assess the resumes and choose what to do next.

Click here to see what the application form looks like.

Watch Candidates Stream In

Workello allows you to easily move candidates through your hiring funnel. You can assess applications, reject or test applicants, set up interviews, and hire the best candidates all from your dashboard. 

All you have to do is select appropriate the appropriate option from the drop-down menu:

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

We also color-coded each of the status options, allowing you to instantly estimate how many candidates you have in each stage of your hiring funnel. 

Reject Unqualified Newsletter Writers

The moment candidates submit their applications, they will appear in your dashboard. You can give editors and content managers access to your Workello account so they can assess them. 

Some candidates will be clearly unqualified and there will be no need to test them. In this case, your editors should select the “Application Rejected” option, which will trigger an automated email politely informing the candidate that you will not be considering them at this time.  

Point, Click, Test

Candidates’ portfolios will give you some insight into their previous experience, but they will usually not accurately represent their skills. Remember that portfolios candidates send contain heavily edited final drafts, ready for publishing. 

What you need to see are applicants’ first-draft capabilities. And the only way to do it is to test them.

At the beginning of our turbulent hiring journey, we didn’t test our candidates but hired them solely based on their portfolios. It was a massive mistake because we ended up paying for unusable articles that our editors had to rewrite and had to begin the hiring process from scratch. 

We learned from this huge mistake and implemented an automated testing system in Workello. All you have to do is change a candidate’s application status to “Test Candidate, ” and they will receive an email that will:

1. Congratulate them on moving on to the next stage of your hiring process
2. Give them a link to the writing test
3. Provide detailed instructions on how to send the test

Check out our instructions to see how easy it is to set up an automated test in Workello. 

Here is what our test looks like:

How To Make a Good Test

Writers are used to doing writing tests, so asking them to provide you with an example of their work won’t be a surprise. To accurately assess a candidate’s skill levels, you need to test their:

1. Command of language—Range and accuracy, spelling, cohesion, etc.
2. Natural use of CTAs
3. Pitching the product to readers
4. Emphasizing benefits of your services or products

A good test should be exhaustive enough to test all the abilities that a newsletter writer’s role requires. But it shouldn’t be exhausting—you can’t reasonably expect someone to write a 10-email sequence as a test for a job they may not even get. 

Luckily, Workello lets you skew that balance in favor of thoroughness. The automation it offers will ensure your communication with candidates is efficient and effective. Workello will also provide the transparency that candidates will appreciate. 

The optimized hiring process will help you make a good impression on candidates. Your company will come across as professional and well-organized, which will incentivize applicants to complete the writing test. 

If you’re not sure how to create a good test, you can always use our template and adjust it to your company’s needs. 

Interviewing Candidates

When applicants submit their tests, it will immediately show in your Workello dashboard—a candidate’s application status will change to “Test Complete.” Your editors or managers can then review the test article. 

Depending on how well a candidate did the test, your editors can reject them by selecting the “Reject Candidate” option or invite them for an interview by clicking on “Interview Candidate.”

If an applicant’s work meets your company’s standards and you invite them for an interview, Workello will send an automated email to them. This email will:

1. Congratulate them on making it to the final step of your hiring process
2. Provide them with instructions to set up a video interview via Calendly at their convenience.

The Candidate Status Page

Despite our best efforts to optimize our hiring process, a problem we kept having was receiving dozens of emails from unqualified candidates who wanted to know what their application status was. 

We implemented a Candidate Status page to mitigate this issue. It lets candidates track their progress through your hiring funnel. It also contains all the information about what our hiring process looks like, so they always know what happens next. 

Since candidates have access to the Candidate Status page, they always know where they are in your hiring funnel, and you don’t have to waste time responding to their queries. As a bonus, you will stop losing great candidates due to inefficient communication. 

Here is what a Candidate Status page looks like.

Our Investment Paid Off Big Time

The way we hired new writers initially was chaotic because we didn’t have a reliable and efficient system in place. 

We posted job ads on multiple platforms and faced numerous issues the moment applications started streaming in. We had no way of tracking, logging, and responding to all the scattered applications. We wasted so much time trying to filter out unqualified candidates. In the process, we missed so many great applicants. 

We received incomplete application forms and couldn’t assess them properly, so we had to contact applicants to provide us with the necessary information. 

Our editors and content managers were overworked because of all the additional hiring responsibilities they had to take on. In addition to their primary duties, they handled job ad posting, devising tests, and reviewing completed tests. As a result, their performance dropped dramatically.

It seemed like there was no end to our troubles! It was clear we had to change something, so we started working on a system that would bail us out. 

We invested countless hours and thousands of dollars, and we developed a fully-optimized and automated hiring system that is Workello!

It helped us:

1. Grow our team of writers and editors from 1 to 45 people in less than two years
2. Reduce the cost of our content production by up to 75%
3. Execute one of the most successful content marketing campaigns of all time
4. Let our content managers and editors do what they do best—create excellent-quality content

We endured quite an ordeal until we devised an excellent hiring system—one you can get for the price of a single quality content page!

Register for Workello for free now! Since it’s pre-configured, you can start automating your hiring funnel and receiving new candidates in less than 3 minutes!

More Places to Find Newsletter Writers for Hire

Thanks to Workello, you can distribute your job ad on as many job boards as you want without worrying about how you will keep track of all applications. After all, they will all end up in the same place—your dashboard.

Here are a few more job boards where you can look for newsletter writers for hire:

• Guru
• Scripted
• Freelancer
• The Writers for Hire
• ZipRecruiter
• Freelance Writing