by Corey Eridon HUBSPOT

Hiring a freelance writer to feed your blog with content comes with some bonuses -- namely, they cost less than hiring a full-time, in-house employee. But many marketers and business owners have been burned by freelance writers who are unresponsive, deliver poor quality content, disappear when they get busy with other projects (or a full-time day job), and miss deadlines. Working with freelancers like that not only presents scalability issues, but it also takes up so much of your time researching, interviewing, and reviewing writing samples that you could probably just use that time to blog for yourself.

So how do you get it right the first time? How do you ask the right questions to weed out the unreliable freelancers, and pick the ones that will create great content for your blog on a consistent basis? Here are the questions you should ask and indicators that will let you pick out a super star freelance writer for your blog who you can rely on for a long time to come.

The Basics

Starting with open-ended questions like these should give you a good indication of how experienced the freelance blogger is -- if they can pointedly answer these questions, they are experienced enough to know what's important to mention in their response. If you're met with vague or generic answers, or they don't ask intelligent follow-up questions that help narrow down their focus, they might be a generalist that isn't specialized in your industry or blog writing, specifically. Or worse, they're simply unprepared for your interview -- not the person you'd like responsible for diligently creating content.

What types of content do you create?

Sometimes you'll encounter a freelancer who writes a great whitepaper, but when faced with developing a compelling blog post, he or she can't quite pull it off. Get your candidate talking about the types of content they write -- blog posts, press releases, ebooks, printed books, business proposals, manuals, etc. A good freelance writer is capable of writing more than one content type, but listen for which assets they emphasize most, as some offer more transferable writing skills than others. Former journalists, for example, are more likely to make great bloggers than technical writers.

About what industries do you write?

Freelance writers can usually write about more than one industry, especially those that make their living off freelance writing full-time (more on that later). But if on their resume or during your interview, a candidate claims they are adept at writing about every industry, it's more likely they are spreading themselves too thin. They are probably okay at writing about a lot, but not great at writing about anything. A good freelancer knows his or her limitations. If you're interviewing someone who claims such a thing, ask for writing samples around your industry and those related to yours. For example, those in the marketing industry would also ask to see samples of writing about technology and business to see if their claims really hold up.

Describe the tones in which you're comfortable writing.

Great freelance writers can adapt their tone based on the company for which they're writing. If you've written a content style guide, you already know the exact tone for which you're striving. See if they mention words that match those you've placed in your style guide -- objective, humorous, balanced, lighthearted, etc. If your candidate is able to do this, they are likely naturals at adapting tone on a client-by-client basis. It also means they've probably read your blog content and have the ability to distill style and tone on their own. That's a skill that is honed with experience, and you can be confident that they can tweak copy to make it sound appropriate for the business at hand.

The Deal-Breakers

All of the great freelance bloggers are capable of doing these things, and incorporate it into their regular writing process. Subpar freelancers, however, may position these as extras or add-ons -- or just something they don't know how to do. Ask these questions to separate the wheat from the chaff.

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Originally Published July 23rd, 2012 by MARKETWIRE

With everyone from experienced journalists to high school kids getting a deluge of news and information from feeds and email on their PCs, tablets, and even smartphones, the modern press release has to grab attention more than ever. But with massive amounts of information lighting up the web and flooding journalists' inboxes, how do you get your press release to permeate the first layer and sink in its roots? A well written and strategized headline always helps. Here are five tips:

Keep the Context

While "Clothing Company Has New Eco-Friendly Line" may seem like a headline ready for publication in a fashion blog or the style section, you have to remember it hasn't actually gotten there yet. Broad, general headlines like the above usually tend to get lost in the background. Uber-busy journalists are the ones who pick up your release and expand the reach of your content, and they are much more likely to spend time reading a release that gets right to the point of who, what, where, ...well, you know. So, always keep the company name in your headline. Here's a great one: American Giant Launches Line of Polo Shirts

The exception to always having the company name in the headline? Since a features press release is usually more for content marketing and will oftentimes serve as the unaltered, finished story that appears in search engines, news feeds and social media sites, the headline of a features release can be distributed without a company name and read a bit more vaguely. But features releases are a whole different blog post.

An effective headline should always reflect the content present in the rest of the press release too. When you write your headline, ask yourself: of the main news points that I am covering, which one would I tell my best friend about first?

Make It Active

In order to draw readers in, headlines should always incorporate active verbs. News never sleeps, so you want to keep your headline free of the past tense. For example: "Introduces" instead of "Introduced" / "Announces" rather than "Announced"

Keep It Real

It's true the digital headline has to catch impatient eyes, but exclamatory headlines never get a good reaction from journalists and bloggers. Bold type yellow journalism headlines of old may have kept newspapers visible from across the street and helped them sell, but journalists and other readers of the modern press release aren't interested in sensationalist headlines. Dropping the exclamation point and keeping your headline grounded will get it the serious attention it deserves.

If you find that your release has something truly bold to announce, maybe a surprising survey finding, an unbelievable statistic, or a scientific breakthrough, most readers will immediately ask: "Says who?" In this case, attributing statements right from the beginning - in the headline - will keep your announcement credible.

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Do you remember the story of Chicken Little? If one person tells you the sky is falling, you laugh at him. But if you’re told the same story over and over, pretty soon you believe it. This also rings true with branding – just because everyone else is saying or doing something doesn’t mean that it works.

Time and again I see entrepreneurs throw thousands of dollars away trying to grow their businesses with traditional branding techniques because everyone else is doing it. These branding myths can break a company before it even gets off the ground. Times have changed – technology has created new ways to build and brand your company; traditional techniques don’t always work anymore. Being aware of the following five myths will help you avoid these mistakes and save countless hours of frustration.