Why You CAN’T Hire a Quality Writer on Fiverr

This is what your website will be if you try relying exclusively on cheap content.

I know that an awful lot of our readers here will disagree with me on this and argue that it depends on your definition of a “quality” writer. And so I’ll allow that depending on what you happen to need, you can find a writer on Fiverr. However, by any objective definition of the term quality writer, it is impossible to find someone on Fiverr. Here’s why:

Defining the Term “Quality Writer”

Let’s start by simply defining the term quality writer. It means much more than just someone who is capable of stringing two words together without constant spelling or grammatical mistakes. Obviously a writer who writes something like “you need goood writer to do good on internets” is not a quality writer. Nobody would argue otherwise (well, some might, but it would be pointless).
However, let’s assume for a moment that your prospective write is capable of writing a decent sentence (i.e. you need a good writer to do well on the Internet). If that is all you need, it is possible to find someone like that on Fiverr. However, that’s not nearly enough to get traffic to your website. There are other things that you need to have in order to be successful.

You Need Someone Knowledgeable

Your writer needs to be knowledgeable on the subject that you want something written about. For example, if you are looking for an analysis of the Euro crisis, your average Joe in the United States who happens to speak English probably wouldn’t know much about it (I happen to write on this subject for other clients of mine which is why I mentioned it).
Now I know that many of you think that someone can become knowledgeable about a subject and that’s true, to a point. I’ve gained knowledge on lots of subjects that I didn’t know much about before. That’s what a good reporter does after all.
However, when you are asking someone to work for just $4 for 500 words (Fiverr takes a buck off the top), they don’t have the time to do the research to become knowledgeable. This means that at most, they’ll give whatever your subject is a superficial treatment.

You Need Someone who Knows How to Write

Again, this is not about someone who simply knows how to string two words together. Ideally, anyone who graduated American high school should be capable of writing a competent sentence (though going my time as a high school teacher a few years back, I’m sorry to say that this is not true either – you would not believe the tortured English some 11^th and 12^th grade kids turned in to me in my English classes).
Going beyond the basics of being able to write a sentence which includes the basics (i.e. it includes a complete thought), one needs to know how to “write” if they are going to write professionally. By this I mean quite simply that writing is an art form.
The best way to understand the difference is to glance through an article on the New York Times or some other major website which actually pays for professional writers. Then, take a look at an article on a content farm like eHow or Break Studios on the same subject.
Even if both are grammatically correct with decent spelling, there is a certain “flavor” missing from the content farm stuff. People who write for such websites simply don’t have the time to hone their skills to the point where they can write something which is engaging and which keeps your interest throughout the article. Instead, they try to write something which is competent, but it ends up sounding at best like something out of Wikipedia.
Good writers take the time to craft their words carefully and they treat their writing like a painter treats his canvas – they write material which expresses feelings and emotions and which make you want to see more. Of course, given some of the ridiculous examples of modern art these days (the requisite all black canvas for example which seems to appear in every museum of modern art), that comparison may not be entirely accurate, though you should be able to understand my point all the same.
To put this another way, I was told once by one of my teachers back when I was in high school that I have a noticeable style to my writing. Good writers always have this – even if there is no name attached to their work, it’s possible to recognize their writing simply based on the style of what they wrote (try reading Hemingway for example and you can see what I mean). A writer on Fiverr is unlikely to have these things.

They Need to Know SEO

When I first started writing for the Internet professionally about 5 years ago (I’ve been writing professionally for 9 years, but I had been doing exclusively fiction until around 5 years ago), I knew nothing about SEO. I didn’t know what LSI meant and I couldn’t have explained keyword density if my life depended on it.
The average writer on Fiverr, even if they can string two words together doesn’t know anything about such subjects either. It’s not that they don’t want to do the job. It’s just that they don’t have much experience in the field and you are going to be hiring people who reflect this simple fact.
Now I know you can explain to them the concept of keyword density fairly easily (though I also know from experience that most clients don’t understand this concept any more than most writers do). However, even if you explain it, there is a certain feeling for weaving keywords into a piece of writing that only comes from experience that most writers on Fiverr won’t have.
Add in the fact that you also need a writer who understands the ins and outs of writing things like link bait and how Google’s algorithms work and you can see that the inexperienced writer won’t be able to provide you with quality work.

But I Found a Great Writer on Fiverr…

Now I know that someone is going to leave a comment here and tell us how they found some great writer on Fiverr. Or someone who works on Fiverr will advertise his or her own services in the comments section and say that they defy this trend and they know what to do to create quality content.
Let’s assume for a moment that you found someone who is:

1. Knowledgeable about your field
2. Understand SEO
3. Has an engaging style of writing
4. Has experience to understand how to write for the web

Aside from the fact that this is unheard of on Fiverr, you need to ask yourself: if someone has these qualities, what the heck are they doing working for less than a penny a word? Why are they in fact on Fiverr to begin with? Either they don’t have these qualities or there is something else very wrong with what these guys do.
Bottom line, you’ll never find such a person on Fiverr. Period.

Why Not?

I know a lot of people tend to think that writing is a commodity like web hosting. Who cares who your web host is, right? You can get an all you can eat service plan for just five bucks a month at HostGator so who needs more? Of course, that’s not really an all you can eat plan. It is all you can eat until HostGator shuts you down. Or if you go to some other host, you’ll find that they have other restrictions and will also shut you down when you violate some unwritten rule.
Hiring a writer is the same sort of thing – the fact is that good writing costs money. Just as you would expect to pay much more for a Degas than for a drawing your purchase from a sidewalk vendor in Central Park, you should expect to pay more for quality writing than you pay for cheap junk that gets hawked on Fiverr.
The question again though is, why? Well it’s simple – Fiverr gives you four dollars for your work. I personally can bang out a blog post in around 40-45 minutes if it’s on a subject I know very well. If it’s on a subject I need to research, it could easily take me 3-4 hours. Now you tell me folks: do you really think that someone who has real skill is going to work for less than minimum wage?

But What about Foreign Workers

Third world writers may speak English, but they don’t understand North Americans.

I know – you’ll tell me how you can hire someone from a third world country and they are so wonderful and they don’t mind working for peanuts. The thing is, even if they understand English fluently (a very, very, very big if – these writers are known for their tortured English), they aren’t likely to be able to write in a way that feels engaging to the average North American.

Bottom Line

Bottom line, if you want material that is engaging and interesting and which will keep your readers coming back day after day to see what’s new on your website or newsletter, you simply cannot rely on Fiverr writers to do the job. It’s simply unheard of that anyone would agree to continue working for such a pittance if they have the skills to earn a decent living as a writer.
By the way, minor shameless plug (I hope Yasir doesn’t mind), I am available for hire as a professional writer; and though my rates are nowhere near what you’ll pay on Fiverr, they are quite reasonable when compared to many other good writers.