Blogging like Chanel No.5 isn’t going out of fashion anytime soon.

For businesses a high-quality blog can produce 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages – according to a HubSpot report this year.

All of which increase the chances of your organisation getting found in search engines.

If your blog isn’t done right, that's a LOT of money left on the table.

While a successful blog requires multiple content marketing specialists; the foundation remains the quality of the content generated by your writer.

Best SEO practices, paid ads, and memes can’t save bad writing.

Here are three qualities to look for in your Lead or Senior writer before hiring them for your blog -

1. Resilience for mass production

Content quality and frequency are top-of-mind for business owners in 2023 – according to a Semrush report. For blogs, posting one article per day STILL seems to get the best results.

Your lead writer should come with considerable years of experience through which they have produced a significant volume of quality content.

Even better if they come with the experience of having worked for at least 1+ years on a high-quality blog. It indicates that they have the resilience for mass production, as creative burnout is REAL.

2. Originality wins, NOT AI

The ideal length of a blog post now leans towards the longer side at 1,100 words on average. While providing original research and data is said to increase your chances of ranking as well.

There’s a point at which bad or average writers will not be able to bullshit their way toward high organic traffic.

If you’re thinking of ChatGPTying your way instead – again I have bad news.
AI tools will most definitely help brands scale production but in the bargain generate tons of low-quality content without personality.

You need original, human-researched content to stand out.

Yes, you can use AI tools to write all the content, but you still need at least one REAL and GREAT writer to give mass production a unique edge.

3. Entrepreneurial mindset

A successful blog requires great content writers, content strategists (yes, they are two different roles), SEO experts, and other marketing specialists. A writer unable to push beyond their comfort zone and collaborate with these multiple stakeholders will not help your blog.

For the ROI, your blog needs a writer with an entrepreneurial mindset; who is willing to balance both creativity and strategy with dedicated finesse.

My insights come from having written 50+ long-format articles for two highly successful blogs – GoStudent and Homegrown (in the recommendation section my clients tell you exactly how my content benefitted them.)

Though I’d love to know what are your challenges when hiring a blog writer?

This blogpost was first published here.