If you’ve ever tried to prosecute freelance writers, you astir apt ended up with thousands of applications.

This usually leads to you asking yourself 2 questions: 

1. How bash I take the best ones?
2. How volition I adjacent person clip to filter done that galore applications?

In this post, you’ll larn however we acceptable up a process to reply these questions.

Most occupation listings archer applicants to email the hiring manager their screen missive and resume. That works good erstwhile looking for full-time hires but not for freelance positions due to the fact that they often pull hundreds oregon thousands of applicants. 

There’s conscionable nary mode you tin reappraisal that galore resumes without losing it. As a result, suitable applicants often gaffe done the nett and you miss retired connected large writers. 

One mode to lick this occupation is to person each applicants use done a Google Form. 

Here are 2 reasons wherefore this makes sense: 

1. It helps you vet applicants accelerated and efficiently – Google Forms funnels applicants into a Google Sheet, truthful you tin reappraisal each applicants determination alternatively of sifting done emails. 
2. It allows you to trial writers’ skills and cognition astatine standard – You tin easy inquire questions designed to justice applicants’ knowledge, skills, and acquisition with the taxable at hand.

In presumption of what you should inquire applicants, I urge a premix of multiple-choice questions and ones with abbreviated answers. Multiple-choice questions assistance gauge cognition and experience, whereas “short answer” questions let you to justice penning ability. 

Here’s 1 of our multiple-choice questions:

The reply to this question is thing that we expect astir experienced SEOs to know. But it whitethorn travel up those with little experience. 

Here’s an illustration of a “short answer” question: 

We designed this question to assistance america justice the applicant’s quality to explicate things succinctly and accurately.

If you’re funny astir our exertion form, here it is.

Only a fistful of these questions are for vetting purposes; the remainder are to get basal details similar their names, email addresses, Twitter handles, etc. It’s indispensable to inquire for these details, arsenic it’s the lone mode to get them erstwhile applicants aren’t applying by email.

You present request to pull candidates to your exertion form, which you tin bash by creating a occupation listing and posting everyplace you can.

Here are the 4 things you request to explain:

1. What you’re looking for – Keep it short. Tell applicants what the presumption entails.
2. What skills you necessitate – List everything you expect successful applicants. 
3. Who you are – Give immoderate details astir your company. (Keep it short; don’t bore people.) 
4. How to use – Send radical to your exertion form. 

There are plentifulness of occupation boards wherever you tin taxable your listing. We posted to ProBlogger, Swipe Files Job Board (prev. Hey Marketers), our careers page, and a fewer others.

We besides posted successful a fewer Slack and Facebook groups.

Given that each applicant goes done the aforesaid process, the much places you tin station your occupation listing, the better. 

Every facet of the vetting process takes spot successful the Google Sheet. This makes beingness ace easy, arsenic everything is successful 1 place. I urge splitting the process into automated and manual vetting to marque things arsenic speedy and businesslike arsenic possible. 

Automated vetting

Here, the thought is to disqualify applicants who don’t acceptable the bill, springiness a preliminary people to the remaining ones, and cleanable up the expanse to marque manual vetting arsenic speedy arsenic possible. Here’s however to bash it successful three steps. 

A. Disqualify

There’s nary constituent wasting clip reviewing applications from folks who can’t travel basal rules oregon don’t conscionable basal criteria. So it pays to disqualify them automatically. The quality of Google Sheets is that you tin bash this easy with filters and formulas.

You’ll callback that we asked each applicants to specify 2 presumption successful nether 50 words. As we wanted to disqualify those who exceeded the allowed connection count, we added 2 further columns with formulas to number the fig of words successful each definition. 

Then we filtered to exclude rows wherever the definitions were supra 50 words.

We past filtered for a fewer much criteria: 

• Rate per 1,000 words – We excluded anyone who didn’t enactment 10–1,000. (This was chiefly to exclude applicants who couldn’t travel instructions and gave a terms per word.)
• Years of acquisition successful SEO – We excluded anyone with “<1” twelvemonth of experience.
• Have you ever utilized Ahrefs before? – We excluded those who answered “no.”

B. Score

Next, you privation to springiness each applicant a preliminary people to get a amended consciousness of their cognition and acquisition astatine a glance. 

To bash this, we created a look that checked their answers to our multiple-choice questions, their Ahrefs experience, and whether they inactive had an progressive Ahrefs subscription. The effect was a people betwixt 0 and 5.

C. Simplify

Even with the filters and scores successful place, your expanse volition beryllium overwhelming due to the fact that it contains truthful overmuch data. So it’s worthy hiding columns you don’t request for the vetting process, specified arsenic applicants’ names and email addresses. This besides helps to destruct imaginable biases.

For us, we added conditional formatting to our preliminary people to marque eyeballing the prime of each applicant easier.

Here’s what we ended up with:

Manual vetting

We skimmed applicants’ preliminary scores and definitions to determine whether they should advancement to the adjacent signifier of the process. Each applicant took nary much than a fewer seconds, allowing america to vet implicit 100 applicants per hour.

For example, it lone took a 2nd to determine not to proceed with this applicant due to the fact that they defined SEM alternatively than SEO.

For the applicant below, connected the different hand, we could archer beauteous rapidly that it’d beryllium worthy giving them a shot. Both of their definitions were close and good written, and they scored good connected our multiple-choice questions:

To way our determination for each applicant, we added 1 last column:

Most radical trial writers by having them constitute a trial nonfiction from a contented brief. We bash the aforesaid but don’t nonstop unsocial briefs to each applicant. We nonstop them each the same brief. 

Here are 3 reasons wherefore we urge this: 

1. It’s easier to people their enactment – You tin make a checklist to people writers connected the aforesaid criteria. 
2. It’s quicker – You don’t person to make a caller contented little for each writer.
3. It tin beryllium automated – You tin acceptable up systems to nonstop the little to writers erstwhile they deed this stage.

Let’s look astatine however to guarantee tests tally smoothly and efficiently. 

A. Explain the woody and get their details

For applicants who walk our archetypal vetting process, we request to explicate the woody for the trial nonfiction and get their details. We created a template successful Gmail for this. 

It explains that we:

• Want to connection them a paid trial article.
• Pay a level interest per trial nonfiction (and how much).
• Send the aforesaid little to each applicant and that their nonfiction won’t beryllium published.
• Own each the enactment they nutrient for us.
• Pay invoices astatine the extremity of the month.

That whitethorn look similar accusation overload, but it’s champion to marque definite everyone’s connected the aforesaid leafage from the beginning.

Our email ends with a nexus to a Google Form asking for their invoice email code (this is often antithetic from the 1 they usage daily) and however they privation to be paid.

B. Send the contented little for the test

We amusement a confirmation connection erstwhile an applicant submits the Google Form successful the erstwhile step. It links them to a Google Doc with the contented little for the trial article.

Here’s what that looks like:

The papers besides contains instructions that archer the applicant to:

1. Make a transcript of the document.
2. Write arsenic overmuch oregon arsenic small arsenic they similar (no connection number quotas).
3. Email america the trial nonfiction and invoice america erstwhile they’re done.
4. Read our contented guidelines earlier they commencement writing.

I urge everyone make contented guidelines erstwhile moving with freelance writers. We nexus to ours successful the doc. It explains what we expect regarding benignant and content.

Here are a mates of excerpts:

C. Review their content

Given that you’ll beryllium investigating a fewer writers, you request a just and accordant mode to justice their comparative quality. For this, we created a checklist to reappraisal and people their efforts quickly.

Here’s an excerpt from our checklist:

You tin spot that we cheque the nonfiction arsenic a full for a fewer basics, past reappraisal each conception successful more depth. 

For example, present are a fewer of our criteria for the definition:

• Is it written successful the close format (according to our guidelines)?
• Is it accurate?
• Is it good written?

In total, determination are 30 things connected our checklist. Each 1 equals 1 point, truthful we people each applicant retired of 30. 

Hiring is the casual part. If an applicant scores good connected their trial article, we delegate them an existent 1 to write. If that goes well, we springiness them more.

Here are a fewer things to look retired for erstwhile moving with freelancers:

• Quality deterioration – Freelancers tin sometimes get lazy oregon adjacent statesman subcontracting work. Both of these things pb to a simplification successful quality. 
• Reliability issues – Life occasionally gets successful the mode for everyone but ticker retired for accordant unreliability. 
• Communication issues – For immoderate reason, disappearing disconnected the look of the world is amazingly common. 

Don’t hesitate to driblet writers if you look these issues. Continuing to enactment with them volition suck your clip and energy. 

By that aforesaid token, erstwhile you travel crossed reliable freelancers who consistently nutrient high-quality work, dainty them well. Great writers are worthy their value successful gold, truthful support giving them enactment and reappraisal their rates periodically. 

Final thoughts

Hiring freelance writers is casual erstwhile you person a strategy successful place. You tin adjacent automate galore of the steps with tools similar Zapier. 

For example, we person zaps for outline requests, logging details, and sending outgo requests to our bureau manager. 

Got questions? Ping maine on Twitter.