How To Buy Pointers.
Yes it's great being able to sell if you're a salesman but if you are a 1 man business doing everything, then you need to understand the subtle art of buying. So I’ve put this together after seeing a couple of threads recently, such as this one https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/passive-voice.1045409/ which I asked the obvious ( to me anyway ) question.
A little bit about me;
Back in the 1990s I had my own business selling office equipment and supplies. I set up from scratch and went knocking on doors to sell my products.
As people ordered from me the boring day to day items such as copier paper, fax rolls and pens, I decided to expand more into the business machines side of things.
I had buyers who sadly just used to buy on price, so they'd fork out £50 on a printer and expect it to print 8k pages a month - never going to happen.
Expectations have to be realistic. Don't hire / buy just on price and expect it to be the best option. You'd not hire the cheapest daily van rental to move the delivery that would usually go onto a huge truck.
I used to sit down with buyers looking for machines and spend time finding out exactly what they needed.
I asked questions as to their requirements, their budget, expectations etc.
Buying Content
Check out the sales page and graphics.
If there's typos there then walk away. If someone can't proof read their own sales copy, then that's not a good sign.
Ask for samples. A no brainer. Tell the writer what sort of content you're wanting so they send the right samples. Pointless receiving blog posts, if you're wanting a buyer guide producing.
Received the sample, then check it through;
What the first sentence looks like - This speaks volumes about the rest of the article. First impressions count!
Format of introduction - Does this grab your attention and would it encourage you to keep reading?
How the article is structured - Is the layout easy to read, does is maintain your interest
How the topic is developed and ideas presented - Would as a blog post make you reconsider your thoughts on a topic. If this was a product review, would it help encourage you to buy?
How the article is drawn to a close - There's nothing worse than a writer being told to do 1k words and the article stops dead on 1001 words. I'd prefer a writer to write another 100 words, IF the article warranted it.
What the call to action was - Did it make you want to go out ant eat at a particular restaurant / rush out to buy the latest headphones / go and vote for Mr XXXX ?
Specify to the writer;
Tone of the article, the personae of the person. Informal, conversational, informative.
If you're wanting academic writing, then go to someone who specialises in this. They'll need to know how to correctly reference and if they are a good academic writer they'll have access to Turnitin
Written first person, second or third person. Passive voice or active?
Not sure which? http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/active-and-passive-voice
Does it want to be written in British English ( Colour ) Or American English ( Color )?
Once you build up a rapport with your writer they'll know how to write as you're wanting, not to be governed by word count / keyword density etc.
If you're using Yoast on your site and you want the article to meet the ' all green' Yoast criteria, then instruct them to ensure that is the case.
Buying A Bespoke Website;
If you’re posting in https://www.blackhatworld.com/forums/hire-a-freelancer.76/ or more possibly the https://www.blackhatworld.com/forums/want-to-buy.92/ and looking for a website, then you need again to be as specific as you can possibly be.
Lay out as much detailed requirements so the people who are going to bid can get straight onto giving you a price.
Do you want Wordpress based site or Drupal, Weebly, Magento or Joomla.
How many pages other than the legal pages?
Do you need a logo doing?
Functionality; Online store, forum, membership site or……
Can you help visualize what you need, using a sitemapping tool?
The 3 of these offer free trials;
https://www.gliffy.com/
https://writemaps.com/
http://www.mindmapping.com/
There’s a couple of free ones here;
http://mindmapfree.com/
https://www.canva.com/graphs/mind-maps/
If you're already sure which plugins, then list them.
Logos & Graphics;
Size, shape, colours, 2D, flat or 3D, portrait/ landscape……
Social Media Accounts / Web 2.0s;
Individual emails / passwords, which platforms, profiles completed, profile pictures adding
Backlinks;
Specify which types of anchors you want, what ratio.
Naked Link Anchors, Generic, Image, Branded, Partial-Match Anchors, LSI Anchors, Exact Match Anchors.
Do you want non-English ?
Finally
It doesn’t matter what you are wanting to buy, if it’s not a set package / offering. If it’s a bespoke service or product, then you need to be as specific as possible to enable the more accurate prices to be quoted.
If not, the team pricing for the job spend hours extra revamping costs etc. You spend additional time having to resend through further information. Time is money to you and them, so the less wasted time is potentially money being saved.
Not fit for purpose? Did you actually specify it needed XXX or YYY ?
Keep in mind too, you buy just on price and it's a total cockup, then possibly you need to buy again. This means you're more than likely to pay more than the original quote from the more expensive provider to begin with.
Remember Specifics Bob !
Yes it's great being able to sell if you're a salesman but if you are a 1 man business doing everything, then you need to understand the subtle art of buying. So I’ve put this together after seeing a couple of threads recently, such as this one https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/passive-voice.1045409/ which I asked the obvious ( to me anyway ) question.
A little bit about me;
Back in the 1990s I had my own business selling office equipment and supplies. I set up from scratch and went knocking on doors to sell my products.
As people ordered from me the boring day to day items such as copier paper, fax rolls and pens, I decided to expand more into the business machines side of things.
I had buyers who sadly just used to buy on price, so they'd fork out £50 on a printer and expect it to print 8k pages a month - never going to happen.
Expectations have to be realistic. Don't hire / buy just on price and expect it to be the best option. You'd not hire the cheapest daily van rental to move the delivery that would usually go onto a huge truck.
I used to sit down with buyers looking for machines and spend time finding out exactly what they needed.
I asked questions as to their requirements, their budget, expectations etc.
Buying Content
Check out the sales page and graphics.
If there's typos there then walk away. If someone can't proof read their own sales copy, then that's not a good sign.
Ask for samples. A no brainer. Tell the writer what sort of content you're wanting so they send the right samples. Pointless receiving blog posts, if you're wanting a buyer guide producing.
Received the sample, then check it through;
What the first sentence looks like - This speaks volumes about the rest of the article. First impressions count!
Format of introduction - Does this grab your attention and would it encourage you to keep reading?
How the article is structured - Is the layout easy to read, does is maintain your interest
How the topic is developed and ideas presented - Would as a blog post make you reconsider your thoughts on a topic. If this was a product review, would it help encourage you to buy?
How the article is drawn to a close - There's nothing worse than a writer being told to do 1k words and the article stops dead on 1001 words. I'd prefer a writer to write another 100 words, IF the article warranted it.
What the call to action was - Did it make you want to go out ant eat at a particular restaurant / rush out to buy the latest headphones / go and vote for Mr XXXX ?
Specify to the writer;
Tone of the article, the personae of the person. Informal, conversational, informative.
If you're wanting academic writing, then go to someone who specialises in this. They'll need to know how to correctly reference and if they are a good academic writer they'll have access to Turnitin
Written first person, second or third person. Passive voice or active?
Not sure which? http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/active-and-passive-voice
Does it want to be written in British English ( Colour ) Or American English ( Color )?
Once you build up a rapport with your writer they'll know how to write as you're wanting, not to be governed by word count / keyword density etc.
If you're using Yoast on your site and you want the article to meet the ' all green' Yoast criteria, then instruct them to ensure that is the case.
Buying A Bespoke Website;
If you’re posting in https://www.blackhatworld.com/forums/hire-a-freelancer.76/ or more possibly the https://www.blackhatworld.com/forums/want-to-buy.92/ and looking for a website, then you need again to be as specific as you can possibly be.
Lay out as much detailed requirements so the people who are going to bid can get straight onto giving you a price.
Do you want Wordpress based site or Drupal, Weebly, Magento or Joomla.
How many pages other than the legal pages?
Do you need a logo doing?
Functionality; Online store, forum, membership site or……
Can you help visualize what you need, using a sitemapping tool?
The 3 of these offer free trials;
https://www.gliffy.com/
https://writemaps.com/
http://www.mindmapping.com/
There’s a couple of free ones here;
http://mindmapfree.com/
https://www.canva.com/graphs/mind-maps/
If you're already sure which plugins, then list them.
Logos & Graphics;
Size, shape, colours, 2D, flat or 3D, portrait/ landscape……
Social Media Accounts / Web 2.0s;
Individual emails / passwords, which platforms, profiles completed, profile pictures adding
Backlinks;
Specify which types of anchors you want, what ratio.
Naked Link Anchors, Generic, Image, Branded, Partial-Match Anchors, LSI Anchors, Exact Match Anchors.
Do you want non-English ?
Finally
It doesn’t matter what you are wanting to buy, if it’s not a set package / offering. If it’s a bespoke service or product, then you need to be as specific as possible to enable the more accurate prices to be quoted.
If not, the team pricing for the job spend hours extra revamping costs etc. You spend additional time having to resend through further information. Time is money to you and them, so the less wasted time is potentially money being saved.
Not fit for purpose? Did you actually specify it needed XXX or YYY ?
Keep in mind too, you buy just on price and it's a total cockup, then possibly you need to buy again. This means you're more than likely to pay more than the original quote from the more expensive provider to begin with.
Remember Specifics Bob !
