My Advertising Pays Review: 13 New Tools to Outsource Your Content Creation in 2016

In its “State of B2B Content Marketing 2015” survey, digital marketing agency Regalix found that the majority (32%) of B2B brands surveyed were creating (and promoting) two pieces of content a week.

More significantly, they also found that 17% of brands surveyed were creating (and promoting) five or more pieces of content a week.

That's a lot of content.

It makes sense that it wouldn't all be carried out in-house – a fact illustrated by HubSpot's 2015 State of Inbound survey who found that 13% of companies were using freelancers to create content and 10% were working with agency partners – numbers that have risen year-on-year.

I get why – and it mainly comes down to cost.

Employ someone and you have to consider salary, workspace, and equipment; not to mention benefits like medical care and paid vacation time.

Conversely, freelancers are only paid for the work they do.

This is generally (though not always) more cost-effective than taking on someone in-house, and allows you to increase or decrease their workload as needed.

This makes outsourcing extremely flexible, which is a huge win for small businesses.

But don't get too excited just yet… there's a hard part: actually finding great freelancers and managing them effectively.

Thankfully there's plenty of tools designed to help you do just that (and many more being released all the time).

Let's take a look at some of the more recent additions to the market that can help you to outsource and manage your content creation in 2016.

1. Zapty

Zapty makes it easy to manage and collaborate on projects – exactly what you need to do to set tasks and discuss projects with your freelancers and most importantly of all, keep all communications in one place. Themeefy called it an “exceptional tool”.

How much does it cost?

Their most basic accounts are free (and are at present the only accounts available). Premium accounts are on their way and will start from just $2 a month per user.

2. SuperTasker

From the people who brought us PeoplePerHour comes SuperTasker: another tool designed to match companies with freelancers that can help them complete tasks (mainly in the digital space) like content creation, blog post writing, and WordPress website design.

SuperTasker's USP is the speed at which it professes to get your tasks completed. It uses “intelligent algorithms” to locate the freelancer best suited to take on your task, in the quickest time. This means your work starts immediately.

How much does it cost?

Depends on the task – anything from $5 for image resizing and cropping through to $249 for an animated video.

3. Bitrix24

Social intranet tool (think Facebook for businesses) Bitrix isn't exactly the newest kid on the block: it's been around since 2010. What is new is an update that means users of “free” accounts can now add as many additional users as they like, for free.

As with most “free” accounts it does come with some limitations: you're restricted to 5GB storage and there's a number of features you won't have access to.

That said, most companies should find a free account does everything they need, making Bitrix a pretty solid option for anyone in need of a user-friendly, cost-effective way to collaborate with freelancers.

How much does it cost?

As above, a basic account is completely free. The three levels of “pro” accounts will set you back $39, $99, or $199 monthly.

4. Nostromo

Nostromo is a digital project management tool that allows you to plan tasks, log hours, and manage workflow.

If you've got staff – either in-house or outsourced – you need a tool like Nostromo. Especially if you want to stay on top of what work's being done, what needs doing, and what it's costing you.

How much does it cost?

At present the tool is so new, it's free. Pricing plans will follow (although it appears they will begin from $5 a month).

5. Speedlancer

“The Uber of freelancing”, Speedlancer promises to deliver your work within four hours of the job being accepted by one of their “speedlancers”.

Personally, I'd question the quality that can be delivered in just 4 hours, but they claim to have “speedlancers” on board who've worked for The Huffington Post and The Guardian, so what do I know?

Either way, if you need something done, and fast, it's got to be worth a shot.

What does it cost?

Each task type is priced individually, but expect to pay $89 for a press release, $99 for a 1000 word blog post, or $219 for an infographic.

6. Flokzu

Flokzu is a “collaborative solution” that allows companies to assign and manage tasks, organize their work life, and measure performance.

If you struggle to track the tasks you assign to freelancers, this is exactly the sort of tool you need.

How much does it cost?

A basic account is free. Paid plans cost either $12 or $17 per user, per month.

7. Konsus

Konsus offers an on-demand matching service for businesses who have work that needs completing and freelancers that can complete it.

Their USP is to make the process of finding a freelancer as painless as possible. You simply tell them what you need, they provide you with a quote, and if you're happy with it a freelancer will get to work.

For peace of mind, the finished piece goes through “quality control” before being sent to you for approval, and you'll only be invoiced once you're happy with the work.

Dmitry Ozik, co-founder of HighYa, shared his experiences using Konsus to develop a series of guides on nutritional supplements:

“We knew we needed thorough, in-depth content to support our site's review sections, but we didn't have the time to put it all together ourselves. The Konsus team helped match us with a great writer, and we really appreciated the extra quality control steps.”

How much does it cost?

You pay by the hour – $19 p/h to be precise if you send Konsus more than 100 hours of work a month, $25 an hour for more than 50 hours work, or $29 an hour on a PAYG basis.

8. Penflip

Penflip is a collaborative content editing tool that makes it really easy to share, review, and comment on changes to your written work.

Best of all, it saves every change automatically, meaning you never need to worry about losing work or deciding to go back on an edit.

How much does it cost?

Free, if you don't mind your projects being public. Alternatively you can pay $10 a month for up to 50 private projects, or $25 a month to access the full range of features.

9. Gradlance

Gradlancer is a UK based site that helps companies find skilled students and graduates to help complete projects in anything from law, healthcare, web design, engineering, and of course, content creation.

How much does it cost?

You set your own budget, but you have to pay £19.95 to get the project listed.

10. Standupmail

Standupmail is a “simple progress reporting tool for teams”.

Its primary function is to collect daily updates from your team that summarizes their recently completed work, their upcoming work, and any problems that are standing in their way.

It's ideal for managers who can't be as hands-on as they'd like or for companies wanting a closer relationship with their freelancers.

How much does it cost?

$10 a month for up to five users, $20 for 15 users, or $40 for 30 users. Teams larger than 30 will need to enquire about their Enterprise package.

11. Valoso

Valoso call themselves the “Upwork” of video creation. In other words, they help you outsource video creation and editing by connecting you with their “talented video editors, videographers, and visual effects specialists all around the world.”

How much does it cost?

Whatever you can afford. You either set your own price, or leave it open and freelancers will bid for the job.

12. WordRake

Proofreading tool WordRake has been on the scene since 2011, but underwent a significant update towards the end of 2014 which widened its reach to cover all forms of professional writing.

Use it to check and refine your freelancer's work or purchase a copy for those you work with regularly so they can proof their writing themselves.

How much does it cost?

A year's license costs $129 for Word or Outlook, or you can “bulk buy” for better value.

13. Localancers

As you might have guessed, Localancers is a service that helps match businesses with freelancers based on location.

While locality isn't a concern for all businesses, working with someone nearby, or at least in your same time zone, certainly has its advantages.

Localancers helps to bridge that gap so you can find freelancers that will be working when you are.

How much does it cost?

Whatever you want to pay.

Wrap

So that's 13 new (and newly updated) tools that can help you outsource and manage your content creation in 2016.

If you're still craving more, sites like Product Hunt, HighYa, and Cloudswave can help you track down relevant tools and, more importantly, let you browse user reviews (so you can figure out which tools are going to be the best fit for your needs).

Do you know of any other new tools for outsourcing content creation or managing the outsourcers you work with?

Tell me about them by leaving a comment below:

Guest Author: Aaron Agius is an online marketer, web strategist and entrepreneur and you can check him out at AaronAgius.com

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