Most businesses have websites, but, unfortunately, many of these sites are static and do not change once they go live. This is a big mistake since one of the main factors for search engine (Google) rankings of websites in their search results is new content publication and updates on the website.
Let’s say you have a website, and since you have already done homework on SEO ranking, you have come to the conclusion that the most effective approach to improve your website’s organic search ranking on Google is to create and publish helpful, new content onto the website at regular intervals. Now say you have decided that you want to publish new blog content twice a week and that each post should be about 1,000 words in length and integrate at least 2-3 images. This is the goal.
Now, how do you break this goal down into a manageable, assignable process that minimizes the amount of time you have to be involved to only 5 minutes each week? The answer is process design and outsourcing. First, let’s start with process.
The process can be broken into three primary steps: (1) topic selection, (2) writing the posts, and (3) publishing them with relevant images.
Now, let’s break each of those steps down into granular sub-steps.
1. Topic Selection
a. Hire a Freelancer: Setup an account at Upwork.com and do a post for a web researcher / virtual assistant. I strongly prefer candidates based in the Philippines for this type of role. Cost should be $5 to $7 per hour.
b. Outsourced Task for Freelancer: Have the freelancer build a Google sheet database with a list of all of the competitor’s websites in the space, including links to their blog pages. Then, once this is built, have the freelancer check each blog page every week and update the sheet with a list of all of the new blog posts published in the industry.
c. Owner Task: Review the Google sheet once per week and write in “Yes” for all of the blog posts on subjects that you think are relevant to your website and would fit with your content strategy.
2. Writing Posts
a. Hire a Freelancer: Go to Problogger.com and do a job post with a few examples of posts that fit your business’s industry. Try to hire 3 or 4 writers, and then narrow these freelancers down to the best writer given your budget and content style. Cost should be about $0.08-$0.10 cents per word of finished content.
b. Outsourced Task for Freelancer: The freelance blog writer will review the list of recommended blog post titles and then write new posts on the same subject lines targeting at least 500 words per post. The freelancer will then upload all completed posts saved as separate word documents into a Dropbox folder and then submit them for proofreading/editing through www.proofreadingservices.com (best online proofreading service; nobody wants typos/errors in their content).
c. Owner Task: Sit back and have a beer.
3. Publishing
a. Hire a Freelancer: If you haven’t already done so in Step 1, set up an account at Upwork.com and do a post for a WordPress web developer. I strongly prefer candidates based in India / Eastern Europe for this type of role. Cost should be $10 to $15 per hour.
b. Outsourced Task for Freelancer: The freelancer will need to take each completed and edited word document and publish it on the website’s blog. Add in 2 or 3 unique images that help illustrate the content in the blog post. Publish the completed blog post on social media (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).
c. Owner Task: Sit back and have another beer.
To implement the entire system above, I would use a project management system such as Asana or Basecamp to lay out each step and assign each freelancer the tasks along the way. This will take a few posts for your team to get used to the process, but once it is running smoothly, it will require only 5-10 minutes of your personal time each week to keep a steady stream of new content posts appearing on your website and social media accounts.
