Ideas are often born from casual conversations, and the genesis of G75 Media’s existence was thanks to an unreliable freelance copywriter. I was a twentysomething property journalist, doing bits of freelance work for a former client, when my then-boss went on a rant about a freelancer who’d missed two deadlines and then supplied second-rate editorial to the property magazine I worked on. Suddenly, a lightbulb appeared – if reliable freelance writers were hard to find, why didn’t I become one?

Fast-forward three years, and G75 Media was incorporated. Fast-forward another decade, and after working with hundreds of client companies, it was time to expand the business. I was a reliable freelance writer – surely there’d be other people with a similarly professional mindset and a comparable dedication to ensuring client satisfaction?

Sadly not. In total, G75 Media took on three freelance writers. The first left after plagiarising an Investopedia article, leading to us losing a client. The second left after I noticed she’d misspelled her own name in a blog submission. And the third never actually started – on her first ‘day’ in the job after the recruitment process, she announced she’d taken a full-time role elsewhere.

A wide but shallow talent pool

If these were my experiences, I can only speculate how small businesses get on when they’re trying to find reliable freelance writers. It only takes one bad experience to sour your impression of an entire profession or industry, as anyone who’s ever paid £200 to a plumber for a five-minute callout or £600 to a garage for a botched car repair will ruefully attest. Both of these have happened to me, and I now regard plumbers as something akin to spanner-wielding fraudsters. My impressions of the motor trade are tempered by having worked in it for many years, but my most recent visit to a service department saw a car with four faults come out with the same four faults unaddressed.

Sadly, unprofessionalism appears to be baked into many people, which makes finding a reliable freelance writer a considerable challenge. This is an unusual industry in that you don’t need professional qualifications (though I have a media production degree), or much experience (26 years and counting) or even a portfolio of articles (over 11,000 articles published on five continents). Anyone with a MacBook and a caffeine habit can build a Wix page declaring themselves to be a freelance writer, but that doesn’t mean they’re any good at it.

These are the attributes any business owner, marketing manager or budding entrepreneur needs to look for when searching for a talented and reliable freelance writer:

1. A portfolio of published work in that specific industry. If you work in engineering, it’s no good employing a travel writer, or vice versa. Look for people with existing sector knowledge, who can hit the ground running. Portfolios should be publicly available – ours is right here.
2. References or reviews. At the time of writing, G75 Media has an unblemished five-star Google rating, while I have several enthusiastic LinkedIn testimonials. If you can’t find reviews, ask. And don’t rely on Trustpilot, since companies can get bad reviews erased by repeatedly flagging them as fake.
3. Flexibility. I work from home with few daily commitments, so I can dedicate long hours to a time-critical project. Freelancers who talk about needing to fit projects in around other commitments aren’t prioritising their clients and will probably deliver work late. Or to a low standard. Or both.
4. A professional setup. Does your potential freelance hire have a dedicated website? Do they have a company web address as opposed to a nebulous Gmail account? Do they have a LinkedIn profile, a contact telephone number, a registered head office, existing reviews and a T&C webpage?
5. An AI policy. You only have to read G75 Media’s past blogs about generative AI to know we don’t use it. At all. Ensure a potential freelancer won’t use AI for any part of a project without your express permission. Ditto outsourcing work to a third party or subcontractor.

Do due diligence discreetly

At the same time, freelancers are judging your business – and you specifically – so don’t be heavy-handed in your enquiries. The points above can generally be investigated without needing to ask a single question. Save those questions for the project you have in mind and the proposed working relationship. Discuss payment methods and timescales, ask about contracts (they might want a signed contract for services, even if you don’t), enquire about their capacity to meet your preferred deadline, and ask for published work samples if their portfolio isn’t definitive. Be punctual and professional in your early encounters, and reliable freelance writers will be happy to work with you. People just want you to do what you said you would, when you said you would.

In the meantime, if you want to commission a reliable freelance writer to help your business get its messages across, why not approach G75 Media? Our award-winning writing, editing and research services are just a phone call or email away, so get in touch with us to find out more about who we are and what we do.