AS A CONTENT WRITER
I have been guilty of missing TATs. A lot. And that's with only a few clients at a time as a solo act. I've been circumventing this being an issue by 1) keeping my clients informed when this occurs, and 2) not promising strict turnarounds. With my day job having ebbs and flows of demands, and the chaos of life peeping in from time to time, it's difficult to properly estimate when jobs will be done. It's gotten to the point where if I find myself more than 10,000 words in a backlog, I will not accept any new orders.
Missing turnaround times is a factor of life in a service-side offering such as content writing. It's far more manual than link building and other SEO processes, where there is a predetermined structure for how things are done. However making up excuses or disappearing off the map is just bad customer service and should not be tolerated. I've been guilty of that as well (missing communications), and always try to rectify when that occurs.
Changing up my content development strategy played a major role in eradicating the issues of both missing turnaround times and missing potential contact by in-progress customers. But again, I'm a one-man operation. It's completely different when a content writing "service" is reliant on outsourcing the writing to others.
AS A CONTENT BUYER
I've noticed this becoming more and more prevalent as well. Two years ago, when I started buying up content for projects of my own, I'd say it was about 25% of the time that turnaround times were missed by content writers. Nowadays that has gone to 80% or more. It's a give and take. Almost every time you pay in full upfront, so the motivation to "work for payment" isn't there. However, ever single negative experience I have had has been with people who were looking to pay after the fact. As such, I don't offer that at all. And I don't expect that of my content purchases, either. But the lack of communication has become frustrating.
My initial resolution was to hire local writers. It has worked out well for the most part, and I've settled on two that provide great work for my own projects. I don't outsource client work to them, though, as if I did I would be line-by-line rewriting the content to meet my own standards, and that isn't worth paying to do.
This TAT issue isn't relegated to one price point, either. I've had massive TAT misses for sub-$1-per-100 services and almost $10-per-100 services, as well as the more common $2- to $3-per-100 services that are cropping up more and more as a mid-range BHW option. I've dealt with people disappearing for weeks and then providing substandard services as well.
A banned and GDPR'ed member did a wonderful job showing transparency of content providers with this thread: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/want-to-buy-content-from-bhw-read-this-first.926029/. However, that is two and a half years old. The make-up of content providers on BHW has changed drastically. Heck, in the time since that thread went live, I've started a content writing service, shut my thread down due to an abundance of orders, and have proceeded to still get regular orders over the following 18+ months.
It's difficult to get that level of transparency without spending a ridiculous amount of money, though.
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Here are my golden rules for content writing services here on BHW as a buyer:
- If you are given a TAT, add 50% to that for a more accurate representation of when the content will (likely) arrive.
- Provide as much information as possible regarding expected word counts, keywords and outlines. However don't provide so much information that it constrains the writing process.
- Follow this rubric I wrote over three years ago that still applies today: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/quality-quantity-speed-pick-two-the-im-triangle.842710/
- Ensure that communication flow is consistent between both parties.
- Don't ask for major revisions, ever. If you see minor things that need to be changed, do it yourself or prepare to wait. No content writer factors in revisions.
- Don't ask for samples. Samples are useless as they are the billboard for a writing service. The quality of your finished product will be well under that of a sample provided.
- Take the time to sift through "sample plz" "review copy" "pm sent" and other messages on content threads to find actual reviews from Jr. VIP and above.
- Pay $1 per 100 or lower for filler content that is keyword optimized. Then pay for $3 per 100 if you can edit and expand on your own, $6 per 100 or higher if you can't for money site quality.
Follow this and you should be fine. If you've got questions about content providers on here, feel free to PM me and I'll do what I can to answer. I've used or received review copies from most of them. I've never had a conflict of interest issue as a content provider myself, either.
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