As a blogger who is in need of freelance writers he can trust, Contentmart was one of the options I had found, but there are some things about it that stop me from using them.
Let me explain in this review why I decided to be VERY careful with Contentmart, and for that matter, any other alternatives like it out there and what is truly a better way to get freelance writers for your website in general…
Quick report on Contentmart:
Price/earning potential: The price range varies on how many words you want on an article and from which type of writer. As a writer however, how much you can is dependent on how much you charge so all in all, it varies.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.
I was close to giving it a more favorable rating (generally the reviews are good) but there are certain reservations I have that stop me from fully trusting this website and I’ll explain what it is…
What is Contentmart (CM)?
It’s almost like a marketplace for people who seek to have content outsourced for them to connect with writers willing to give it. The writers can choose their own price range and the customer can then select which price they are comfortable with.
It is similar to these 7 other writing sites. And in the following link, see method #5 for a list of legit sites.
Now as for Contentmart, the website itself apparently has nearly a quarter of a million writers ready to work for you and the more popular ones generally charge more. Now this may sound good, but let the following pros and cons show you what I think of that number and why it may not be a good thing…
Pros:
1) Each writer has their own profile within the site (sort of like a resume) to help people looking to hire them a preview of what they are capable of producing.
These profiles include how well their work is accepted, the satisfaction rate, which topics the writer/s knows about well, and even some sample articles to view.
Here’s a screenshot of a profile of one of their better writers. This kind of info is good to have initially when you’re considering a writer:
2) You are able to view sample work of a writer before making the decision to hire them.
3) Various language options are available.
4) Generally, CM receives pretty good reviews from the sites I’ve checked but you still need to be careful, even with positive reviews and my cons will explain that part coming up.
5) Early on, this site does stress how important quality work is to them, but the word I was most looking for was “uniqueness”. They do indeed claim they focus a lot on this.
6) You are allowed to not accept work you do not like and can ask the writer to change/edit it.
7) Generally, prices for the general writing staff there are cheap. In some cases, a few cents or more per word.
8) It is a good place to earn extra money as a writer and get yourself noticed by many potential people seeking people to outsource work to.
9) You will definitely be able to find some awesome writers there, but you may have to filter through a bunch of potential picks before you land on one you like. Seek out those who specifically know a lot about your topic and view their work, as well as their acceptance rate (of their articles) before hiring them.
10) They have quite a lucrative affiliate program, which I speculate may be the reason why there’s so many overly positive reviews on the internet for them. I could be wrong though…
Cons:
1) Generally speaking, cheap prices for long articles (500 words or more) is not something I’d ever recommend buying as the quality generally reflects the cheap price. You may want to aim for more expensive, more popular writers if you wish to get work done on this site.
2) I’ve noticed on some of more popular writer’s work grammar mistakes as well as boring content being written up. Obviously, this is my subjective opinion, but as someone who indeed would benefit from the services offered by CM, I have very high standards and so far, I am reluctant to try out one of their writers, at least on a major website I currently run.
3) I have seen some claims of duplicate content. Now I know not all claims have merit and vice versa, and I know in general CM seeks to deliver the best results for those seeking to outsource, but I know a lot about how important it is to have unique, GOOD content to succeed online and any deviation from that goal, even if it’s a little bit would frighten me away from hiring someone…
4) Some silly mistakes are seen on the main site (grammar mistakes).
Contentmart alternatives. What I’ve learned is safer to use to get quality writers…
I once wrote an article on finding freelance writers and for the most part, my advice to anyone seeking to outsource was to find and TRAIN a potential writer before fully trusting them to work on their site.
But to do so AFTER you knew exactly what you wanted on your website and more importantly, that you knew about SEO and how to write high quality content articles that kept people on your site.
The problem I see with CM is that there’s SO many people working there, each with their own style of writing and it’s basically impossible to monitor how well each one does and/or how much each person knows about SEO. It is great that they have a portfolio to help people gauge their work and consider hiring them, but I also know that just because someone approves a writer’s work doesn’t mean it’s good.
From what I see, they don’t seem to have a central training to help writers of different, diverse skills to understand the central rules of SEO and the importance of creative, well written and easy to read articles. If I am wrong on this, let me know, perhaps I missed it on their site.
Final Rating: Contentmart
Yellow Flag
4 out of 10 stars. This site is generally good, but make sure that you know all of the things you want from your potential writer, from the topic, to their background with it, to reviewing it and being picky about what you want and so on, to make sure that you get the work you want done from them. If you do happen to find that 1 writer you like there, keep them around. Trust me, they will be an asset.
Don’t just seek out ANY writer there, especially the cheap ones, seek the ones out who would be best fit to write for your site and don’t settle if you’re not 100% happy. Read about my alternatives below if you find yourself in a position where you can’t find a writer you like and expect more…
My final thoughts: Would I outsource from Contentmart?
As of right now, my opinion of this site is generally neutral and I absolutely believe you can get good writers there, but it may take some time and filtering out to get there. Even if I do find someone there that I like, I will absolutely grade their work with great pickiness.
I will make sure that work isn’t duplicated elsewhere, that it fits my understanding of SEO and writing good stuff and if I’m not happy, I will make sure they fix what I want them to fix.
However, to be fair, this type of pickiness is something I would apply to any potential writer out there that I’d hire. I know how carefully one has to tread in this industry and how easy it can be for a site to get ruined on Google and/or other search engines if the work is bad or worse, spun and duplicated. It is my business on the line and there’s just too much bad stuff out there for me to NOT be careful…
Based on what I see from this site so far, I am reluctant. I know there are good writers there, but it’s going to take quite a bit of work to find that right one for me and even when I do, it may take a few tries to get them to produce the type of work I want.
But again, I am overly picky because I run a site that makes me a full time income (this one) and it is imperative that if I want to keep it going that way, that I expect the best.
What are the specific alternatives to Contentmart?
There’s 3:
1) Textbroker.
I think that site is a bit more superior to CM because it has higher qualifications for writers and allows you to more specifically narrow down the type of work you want. Learn more about TextBroker.
2) Wealthy Affiliate.
One thing I’ve come to understand is that no one can be more trusted to run your own site but you. That is why I have very rarely ever outsourced and mainly relied on my own writing skills to produce content when I can, especially on my main site like this one.
What Wealthy Affiliate does is it teaches you how to market your own website through writing your own stuff in the best way possible and that means targeting the best keywords, writing the most engaging articles and getting high rankings on search engines.
Sure it takes more work, but honestly, the skills I’ve built from Wealthy Affiliate have allowed me to narrow down the type of writer I wish to have work for me should the need arise and so far I’ve had 1 person deliver on that quite well. And for what it’s worth that 1 person did actually come from Wealthy Affiliate.
Though it is on it’s way to offering writing services, I can tell you this much right now: You may very well find some awesome writers on Wealthy Affiliate and even if you don’t, you will become one with their training.
3) If you learn from Wealthy Affiliate, and create your own great content, you can then hire a writer and teach them to do the same thing for your website. That is how many smart and successful bloggers I know do it.
In any case, I will suggest the following for anyone seeking to outsource:
Read this article on the freelance topic. It will really help you figure out how to find the right writers for your site. It may be through CM, it may be through Textbroker or perhaps, for the time being, it is best that you handle the writing work yourself, but in any case, it’ll basically insure that you make the right choice and that it provides your website, your business with success and that the content produced will thrive on search engines and attract more business to your site.
The bottom line with Contentmart:
I originally asked the question if it’s safe to outsource with them. I will say yes and you can trust this place because if you’re not happy with the work, you don’t have to approve/pay for it, but know what sub par work and that means understand how SEO works and let the writer/s you wish to hire there know what you want.
If you do not do this, they will go ahead and produce work that may not necessarily reflect what you wish to see in an article.
Hi there!
Great content. I highly appreciate this and feel like it is directly talking to me. I have been a victim of poorly written content, that I had to rewrite the entire article/s myself, but it was a lesson. Since today I only purchase from the designated sites plus I am training my own writers now, so I totally support you.
Yeah that is a common issue with writers Dave and it’s great to hear you’re now taking the time to train your future writers, it’s an investment that will pay off for you, believe me.
I totally agree with you that writing one’s own content, gives you full control over the quality you release to your audience.
I have never used Contentmart, but I have hired some writers before for cheap – and to say the least, it didn’t turn out well..waste of my hard earned money.
I have like you been a member of WA for a couple of years.
When I first started out, especially as a non-native English speaker, the struggle with creating high-quality content had been very real. But once you start to dig deep down in the amount of high-quality training material available to you there, writing engaging articles becomes a lot easier.
I have been looking into finding native English content editors though. Just to avoid the most crucial mistakes!
Have you ever hired an editor from Contentmart? Or somewhere else? Or do you rely fully on your own writing skills? What’s your recommendation for non-native English speakers who are searching for editors – Contentmart? Or learning by doing it yourself?
Rene’
Hi Rene, I have hired people before just not from Contentmart. As of now, I write all of my own content, especially on major sites like this one. In my opinion, you should seek to develop your own writing skills and make your site the way you want it to be, then find someone who is willing to get trained by you to continue the work and this applies whether or not you are a native English speaker.
Definitely, there are some level of risks involved when allowing other writers to create content for your own site. I’m wondering if outsourced content by Contentmart and other companies would allow potential customers to see more of the writers’ background and experiences or successes before making a commitment. This may reduce risk for first-time customers using any writing services, including Contentmart.
Also, I’m wondering if you could comment on how disputes are handled. For example, if you request content from a writer considered popular or advanced what happens if you are quite disappointed with their content? Is there any way to complain and request better content? I’m curious to know how they handle these types of situations.
Hi Sheldan, every profile set up by a writer there has a section where they provide their own sample work, so you can see a preview of their writing style beforehand.
Regarding disputes, as far as I know, if the person hiring does not like the work produced, they can ask for a change and it doesn’t matter if the person writing is a high ranking writer or not.