No affiliate marketing project is complete without content.
Content is what drives visitors to your site (like how you’re here now) through multiple channels whether that’s via social media shares, search results, or advertising. Content is the vehicle for your message and offer – it exhumes your brand, expertise, and authority.
There’s a problem, though: Content creation is tough.
We don’t doubt you could create great content for your site. What we do doubt is whether you have the commitment to produce it on the regular.
Ask yourself: Could I shoot a video, write a 1,000+ word blog post, or record a podcast every day?
Sure, maybe in the first few months because you’re pumping with adrenaline.
Time goes on and the task becomes tedious. You begin to slip.
Before long you’re posting infrequently which causes a traffic drop. The drop means fewer leads and conversions. Less money. Now you’re losing interest…
A good reason to use a content creation service.
What We Look for in Content Creation Services
Here’s what you’re looking for with these services:
- Fair pricing
- Quick turn-around
- Easy communication
- Quality pieces
Pricing should be less of a factor when seeking these services. Low-balling writers will get you low-quality articles. You’ll often spend more time editing the work than if you had done it yourself. Plus, big, engaging content will blow those little 500-word pieces out of the water.
Turn-around is important if you want to capture a trend. There’s no value if a piece is published days or weeks after the buzz has subsided, in this regard. Likewise, you want to publish frequently to keep the community engaged which won’t happen if the services are taking forever.
Easy communication needs to be there so content creators understand your guidelines without the need to re-edit or scrap the project to begin again.
Lastly, you want quality (and this is the hard part). Content services have a very “your mileage may vary” aspect to it all. Sometimes you’ll have a writer assigned that completely nails it – other times they’ll completely drop the ball. Quality and consistency go together.
If a service can provide these four attributes then they pass in our book.
Test Before You Commit
The best way to find a good service is to test it.
- Write a topic/prompt
- Set the guidelines (word count, links, tone)
- Submit it to a content creation service
- Compare results
Our results when working with these services will vary from yours. It’s a matter of finding which provide good, reliable talent for your specific topics & niche.
The Best Content Creation Services
Every piece of content gives you an opportunity to bulk the site, inject affiliate offers, engage the community, and solidify your authority.
Think of content as a salesperson except you pay them once and they’ll gather leads and promote offers forever.
Spending a couple hours, a day crafting content by hand would become your job.
Don’t do that… you have more important things to do.
Allocate a budget toward the content marketing so you can focus on the big picture items with the affiliate marketing business.
With that said, here are a few content services worth exploring (and remember: testing):
iWriter
iWriter is one of the largest content creation services covering all basic content needs. Their edge is built around cheap articles with quick turn-around time.
The talent pool is a mix but what do you expect when paying $1.25 for a blurb of an article?
You’ll have access to premium writers for higher-quality content. Though, you’ll likely need to use a set of special instructions or limiters (like having them point out a misspelling) to ensure they’re following guidelines and not just spinning articles.
The price of each article is hard to beat – we’d recommend iWriter for smaller projects such as building tier 2 or 3 links pointing back to the site.
Constant Content
Constant content is a fantastic choice for two reasons:
- Request tailor-made content
- Buy pre-made content
The writer requirements for CC are tough which lets them weed-out low-quality candidates. Resulting in 100k+ writers that are good at what they do. Content produced by the team has gone on the sites of major brands like CVS, Walgreens, and Sears.
Their partnership with Shutterstock further streamlines the content creation process.
Writers are encouraged to sell their work at high prices so expect a larger investment when using Constant Content. Yet, their tough guidelines and professionalism guarantee quality work. Access to the custom content or quick, one-off pieces in the marketplace means excellent turn-around time.
The HOTH
HOTH stands for Hit Them Over The head – a philosophy the company has taken to deliver exceptional results for their clients. The company offers SEO services and recently introduced a content service.
Content service requests through HOTH will pair you with a manager to understand your needs & wants. They will suggest topics and keywords to maximize your content marketing plan. Turn-around time if fast, often a day or less depending on their promotional campaigns.
Content through HOTH will touch the higher-end of your budget. You will have access to a backend to review and request revisions if you’re not satisfied with the work. Their 4-tiered options (500, 1k, 1.5k, and 2k words) sales fairly. Overall, you pay more but you get quality returns.
Content Writers
Content Writers are big players in the world of content marketing. Their clients include Forbes, Pepsi, Mercedes-Benz, Expedia, and Remax. This goes to show you the quality you can expect from their writing team.
They provide a range of desirable services from blog & social posts to email newsletters, website pages, whitepapers and more. Writers are divided by their expertise in different industries; so you’re not stuck with the jack-of-all-trades types often found on other platforms.
Pricing for blog posts starts at $110 with a 5-day turn-around time. But, with it, you’ll get free topic pitching, a money-back guarantee, and extensive editing. You’ll have a dashboard to track and review orders. Overall, CW is the perfect match for the affiliate marketer in need of a strong content strategy.
TextBroker
TextBroker is leagues ahead of competitors like iWriter but falls a little short of Content Writers.
Pricing for the service is mid-range. You can expect the cheapest articles to cost around $10 a pop while higher quality work closer to $100. Its system will be familiar if you’ve used other platforms else you could use their ‘managed service’ to streamline.
The alluring draw is its writer options: OpenOrder, DirectOrder, and TeamOrder.
OpenOrder is a cost-effective solution which places the order into the general “pool” that’s picked up by any writer in the system (if they’re qualified). DirectOrder allows you to choose the writer. Whereas, TeamOrder creates a team of your choosing else solicits applications.
TextBroker is used by many major brands like Staples, eBay, and 1&1. The quality is there if you’re willing to spend the money (who’d of guessed!). The company is known for turn-over with freelance writers so if you find one you like… stick with them!
UpWork
UpWork is both revered and hated in the freelance circuit. Some have found the platform a major success while others loathe its existence. UpWork is a catch-all for freelancing so here you’ll find services from app development to article writing.
With UpWork, you choose your writer by browsing their profile. On this profile, you will find detailed, transparent information about their work history/feedback. You can see their expertise and hourly rate.
Overall, UpWork is more of a platform for established freelancers to create an alternative portfolio than what you may be looking for (a writing pool). This is good though. It lets you develop a relationship with your writer which can greatly help with capturing the tone and realizing goals with the content!
Word Agents
And then we have Word Agents.
Don’t be fooled by the colorful (somewhat jarring) website because this platform houses incredible talent at a very fair price.
The Word Agents special touch is found through their careful selection of American writers and account managers. Their strict writer guidelines help produce consistent, quality content to their clients.
You get the usual mix of things: blog posts, press releases, website content, reviews, and more.
Word Agents has a smaller pool of writers but each has at least a year of experience writing for the Web. This small team can pump out amazing works. Unfortunately, you’ll need to get in touch to see what they say about the pricing – but some have mentioned $0.045/word.
The Process with these Services
The process is about the same:
- Create an account
- Request content
- Receive content
- Review content
- Accept content
The account backend will be different but it shouldn’t take too long to figure it out.
Some services will put you in contact with a manager. These individuals will create a profile and offer suggestions. If accepted, their team will submit content topics to the writing pool.
You’ll have a chance to review each piece.
What We’d Do with Content Creation Services
You can find every type of content you desire from blog posts and tweets to video series and eBooks.
If you have the money then you have choices.
Get creative!
For example – here is content we’d pay for when launching a new affiliate site:
- 1 x Ebook – Used to gather email leads or available for purchase
- 1 x Explainer Video – Used to engage visitors landing on the homepage
- 3-5 x Evergreen Pieces – Used to cover the top 3 topics of the niche
- 12-20 x Blog Posts – Used to cover sub-topics that are published every day (or other days)
This would fill out what you’d need on the site to make it engaging.
Giving people a reason to dig around, comment, and used to promote affiliated products & services.
From there, our content strategy would include:
- Infographics
- Ad creatives
- Header graphics & post gifs
- Email newsletters
- Case studies
- Whitepapers
There’s a lot to choose from once you have the foundation.
Each new piece will get indexed and send you traffic along with it being shared across social media platforms. It’s also frequently used as part of an exclusive “insider group” which creates passionate, die-hard followers.
Some Final Thoughts about Content Creation Services
If you’re the type that can piece together dozens of content pieces to start the affiliate marketing project then more power to you! But do consider the long-run.
Use these content creation services to supplement your stream of publication (if anything).
Doing so will let you double down on the content efforts ultimately providing the community more to consume and share.
More traffic = more sales. Simple.
Let’s reiterate:
- Collect info about content creation services
- Test a sample with each to find the best candidate
- Write clear guidelines to reduce the need for edits
- Work with a community manager to kick around ideas and goals
- Fund the account
- Review and/or accept submitted pieces
- Add a personal touch and publish them to your platforms
This is a departure from the typical suggestion of “write your best stuff”.
You can still do that but why not leverage services in the meantime?
You’ll receive quality content your readers will love while remaining focused on important activities.
That’s a win/win.
A few bucks toward these services will make a difference in traffic generation and income generation.
Questions? Comments? Have your say in the comments below.
