Does anyone have experience dealing with copywriters?
I’m working with 2 at the moment who both started out great, but became unreliable after a couple of months.
Both complain to me that they have no money, but at the same time they keep slacking off, missing deadlines and turning down work I offer them.
What can I do?
They’re both really good (when they apply themselves), but getting work out of them is proving difficult.
Sounds like maybe you need to set some parameters, like an agreement on when the work needs to be completed. If they aren’t reliable, move on. I’m sure there are lots of decent copywriters out there.
[FONT=verdana]I suspect your experiences are fairly typical. The fact is that there are many highly professional copywriters around who will give you a good service for a reasonable price. And there also many slackers who miss deadlines and deliver poor results. (I say this both as a sometime copywriter myself, and as someone who has had to work with other freelance copywriters.)
All you can do is to select your writers carefully. Ask your colleagues or friends for recommendations. And ask the prospective writer for references or samples of their work. And if you get it wrong and hire someone who’s no good, get rid of them and get someone else.
Mike
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Adam,
I know it can be frustrating when people don’t perform. In many cases, scenarios like this arise out of not managing expectations properly. Make it very clear what you expect out of them and if they don’t deliver, move on. It may be hard to try and find new people however think of the time you are wasting waiting for work to be completed and compare any lost revenue to what it would cost you to find new people. If the cost of putting up with the behavior is less than that of finding new people, maybe you just stick with the people you have now. If its reversed, find new content creators.
Hope that helps,
Shawn
It’s the usual. I’m not a writer, I enjoy more doing other stuff and it also comes easier, writing for me takes time. Still I tried to get people into it, and I mean people I know they need the money, it began as a trying to help them without giving out free money. Turns out they don’t really show the amount of need hey tell me about… lazy for everything. So, back to the beginning, even that writing is not my thing I do all the writing on my sites.
I have my days when I’m inspired so I try to write as much as I can, other days I’m dry and I hate it. Anyway, nothing compares to the peace of mind that the content is original, not copied. I’ve seen too many stories of people paying for content only to find out it’s not 100% original.
Are those copywriters cheap or from India/Pakistan? 
I hope you have a contract. You can’t let free lancers just walk all over you like that.
If they aren’t doing a good job and you aren’t satisfied, you just need to let them go and spend your money else where.
Do what you do with other people whose service you don’t like. Employ others.