Blogger for Hire - A Good Business Practice or Not?

In my busy ebusiness life, I sometimes get the fleeing thought… "Maybe I should just outsource a blogger to write my business blog so I can be freed up to focus more on other core biz activities?" And then I think, "Wait a Sec…., that freelance blogger will be representing my company, dialoguing with my prospective and existing members and writing content that could either put my business in a positive or negative light! So what is the right decision here?

Well, like most things, I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer here… I think there are some business blogs with a certain personality that the audience identifies with that is hard to duplicate. Seth Godin or Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim would be a perfect example - I think it would be difficult for well-recognized bloggers like those two to recruit a ’utility" blogger that would be able to capture the same sentiment and personality that made their blogs so successful.

However, other corporate blogs might be less tied to an individual and more to the company itself, so outsourcing a blogger with complimentary ideas and philosophy to that of the company as well as a sound understanding of industry and blog content might work out quite well.

Now, I find it interesting to hear of a few recent job postings over the past while that are seeking bloggers to write a 300-400 word post for $10? Come on, give me a break! This is what I call Blackhat blogging - Hiring a blogger with pennies to write content simply for SEO purposes for your business. My personal opinion is that it is not a good business practice and is diluting the blogosphere with junk content. Now, I am not sure of the company’s intent, but it would seem too not look favorably upon a business who hires bloggers for pennies just to fill content, without consideration of the impact it may have on their business and reputation as a whole.

Now, don’t get me wrong…. I am not suggesting that hiring a blogger to write your business blog is not a good business practice - I just think that the screening and recruitment of that blogger should be a well thought-out process. I know if I am going to recruit a blogger for ESalesGuru, I am sure as heck not going to hire a random ghostwriter at rock-bottom price as this person will represent my company, dialogue with prospective customers and must understand the nature and heart of our business and blog content!

So, here are a few criteria you might consider if you ever decide to outsource some corporate blog writing:

• Experienced Corporate Blogger and Copy writer
• Sound understanding and knowledge of your blog content and topics
• Personality and Writing Style that will gel with blog’s audience (KEY)
• Good blogging references and samples

I am sure there are more, but I would also expect that you will need to pay more than $10/blog to secure a top-notch blogger that will meet the above criteria and compliment your company’s image and message. I guess the bigger question is how much is it worth to maintain a strong business image and a productive dialogue with your customers and prospective customers? I am probably guessing more than $10/post:)

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