Member Avatar for darrylpatterson

What do you guys think about delegating online marketing jobs (SEO, content writing, Social Media etc.) to freelancers from countries where English is not the first language? Is it worth it?

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Good thread — useful viewpoints so far. ’s point about central oversight, and and ’s concerns about uneven quality and language, are all valid. ’s caution about risky backlinking is also worth taking seriously. The practical takeaway: treat each hire as a small procurement project, not a gamble.

Screen and test fairly. Never ask for unpaid bespoke work. Instead give a short, paid micro-assignment that mirrors real deliverables (for content: 200–400 words with a title and meta; for social media: a 1-week post calendar; for outreach: one customized email). Provide a one-page brief up front: audience, goal, tone, required facts/sources, and explicit acceptance criteria (readability, originality, keyword placement, one round of edits). Use the paid trial to evaluate accuracy, adherence to brief, communication, and turnaround — then decide.

Set up governance and QA. Use milestone payments, require editable files and live links, and insist on a shared doc or tracking board for tasks. Keep an onboarding checklist (style guide, banned tactics, sample headlines). For SEO/link work, require transparent reporting of placements and methods and forbid automated networks or undisclosed link-farms. If you can’t QA everything, either hire a single PM/editor as suggested or retain a small internal checklist to spot-check quality.

Watch for red flags: generic portfolios without live examples, refusal to accept a paid trial, evasive answers about methods, or unrealistic guarantees. Start small, pay fairly for tests, document acceptance criteria, and only scale after repeatable quality. That also addresses ’s concern about fairness: a paid, well-scoped test is both ethical and the best predictor of real performance.

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Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

Good question - I actually have been exploring this option as well. When I attended a workshop that dealt with outsourcing to overseas help - it mentioned the necessity to hire a Project Manager even if you only have 1 freelancer. This way, they will ensure the project is complete and on-time.

Member Avatar for canadafred

Good question - I actually have been exploring this option as well. When I attended a workshop that dealt with outsourcing to overseas help - it mentioned the necessity to hire a Project Manager even if you only have 1 freelancer. This way, they will ensure the project is complete and on-time.

You usually get what you pay for or worse.

Member Avatar for jay 11

i think Fred summed it up perfectly.. if you are marketing to a predominantly English speaking audience, it won't pay to hire someone who speaks or writes second (maybe third) rate.

Think of how your users will react to reading said content. Search engines too have evolved to a point where "forced content" won't get you better rankings.

Member Avatar for Financial-post

you can find very good seo workers in countries like romania, india!!

Member Avatar for jennypitts

Some things can be delegated to freelancers. Especially if it is something you are not an expert on. There are many quality freelancers out there that specialize in a wide range of fields, HERE in the US. From writers, to programmers, to advertisers. I am a strong believer in keeping the money circulating in the US. HOWEVER, I have to be fair and say that I have had good experiences hiring web designers from outside the US as well as bad experiences. It is a matter of trial and error.

But, for your articles I do strongly suggest for you to hire a NATIVE English speaker. I have a friend who is a freelance writer. If you want her info, send me a PM and I can give it to you.

Member Avatar for darrylpatterson

What do you guys think about oDesk? There are a lot of freelancers there who are willing to work at very low rates, but I am not sure if it's worth the money since It's hard to tell if they are legit.

Member Avatar for jennypitts

I have never used oDesk, but if your gutt says, it might not be worth the money, because they are just too affordable, then trust your instincts. I am a strong believer in the phrase, "too good to be true." Been there, done that. I have hired people in the past just because they were VERY affordable, and ended up spending much more money hiring someone else to fix the bad job the first one did. That is why, 1- I try to hire within the US, where I know the consumer and business laws, and I know that a contract can be upheld by a judge (that is of course if you are hiring someone to be a BIG job that will require a Big investment on your part.) 2- I always look for reviews and recommendations. Even if person "B" is going to charge me a little more, yet he/she has amazing reviews, then believe me, spending those few extra bucks, can save you BIG bucks in the long run.

Member Avatar for darrylpatterson

Have you tried hiring someone outside the US before, Jenny? How did it go? How much do you usually pay for the jobs that you assign to freelancers? Some providers do seem too good to be true.

Member Avatar for inspiroHost

For things like design I wouldn't mind delegating to freelancers, but for SEO / content writing, I'd rather do it myself. I wouldn't want to run the risk of a freelancer spamming on my behalf while building backlinks. As for outsourcing content writing, it's not worth the extra time it would take for me to fix the grammatical errors and make sure the content is not just fluff.

Member Avatar for jennypitts

Darryl, I have hired people outside of the US, for things like programming, meta tags, among other things. I have had both, good and bad experiences. I have also spent a lot of money with people that do bad jobs. But, I have learned that before hiring the person you must initiate communication. Test the waters, see if the person you are planning to hire really is knowledgeable and fully understands what you want. This will save you headaches in the long run. I have used scriptlance and getafreelancer for a lot of my jobs. For writing articles, I tend to stay within the US, because of grammar and perfection. If you want I can recommend one article writer I often use.

Member Avatar for darrylpatterson

Hi Jenny,

How much does your freelance writer charge per article?

Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

JennyPitts, that is veyr good advice. I also second to the recommendation of giving the freelancer a test assignment and see if it worked. If not, you know to lok for another one.

Member Avatar for darrylpatterson

Isn't giving a freelance writer a test assignment kind of unfair in his part? I mean, that's like asking for a free meal in a restaurant before deciding to order.

Hell, I could ask 10 freelance writers to write me 2 "test assignments" each. Then, I could have 20 FREE articles. Is that what you do? How is it working for you?

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