Do your tech experts have the time to write blogs and social media posts? Has your company documentation taken a back seat because your talent simply doesn't have the time for writing? If so, you might be missing out on the many benefits of quality technical writing.
Tech companies need their talent, like software engineers, developers, and designers, to focus on developing and further improving products and services. After all, that's where they're most valuable.
Yet, you still need a writing expert to properly convey your technologically complex ideas and messages to your customers and coworkers. Whether it's product documentation or user manuals and blog posts, professional technical writing services can help create and publish on-brand, appealing, and effective content.
Yet, finding quality technical writers isn't easy. As you're about to learn, having a full-time writer may not be cost effective, and working directly with freelancers on a project-by-project basis may not be time efficient for your business.
So, what should you do? Abandoning content writing as a goal might be a huge mistake, given that tech companies thrive off the internet engagement and online purchases. Publishing low-quality content isn't a good idea either, given that fierce competitors spare no time, effort, or resources on marketing their content.
The only right way to move forward is to hire freelance technical writers through The Urban Writers' Platform.
Why Hire Technical Writers?
Every company needs white papers, user guides, manuals, and other forms of writing on technical topics that need professional writer assistance.
A technical writer can help your business post only the highest quality content. You may already have the best engineering and technical talent in-house, but are they talented writers?
Remember, your content does more than convey technical information. It promotes your business, appeals to your customers, and showcases your brand identity.
Hire a Technical Writer for Technical Documentation
If you're not too keen on writing, then you probably haven't thought about the types of documentation and written communication materials your company puts out. If you're running a tech company, you probably produce a lot of technical documentation.
But, what is technical documentation?
Technical documentation includes in-house paperwork, end user documentation, API documentation, and many other written works that inform and instruct. Main categories of technical documentation include:
-
Product, material, and components specifications
-
Information and data sheets
-
Manufacturing and system architecture, standards, and requirements
-
System design, development, testing, operation, and other documents
-
API documentation
-
And others.
The quality of this communication affects both your business efficiency and productivity as well as your customers. Useful business writing materials help day-to-day operations run smoothly, and they can also increase customer satisfaction with your product.
How to Choose a Technical Writer for Hire
Now, we come to the crucial part of outsourcing technical writing, and it's choosing the right technical writers for your business writing. Essentially, you're looking for those technical writers who have both advanced industry knowledge and strong technical writing skills.
You also need to screen for a writer who has the right communication skills for your business, and is also keen on project management duties, since they need to adapt to working on more than one task.
Your selected freelance technical writer should also have the required written communication skills to work well with your team.
Once you review numerous profiles by interested applicants for your job, proceed to shortlist your candidates using the following criteria:
Writing Skills
Your writer should have excellent writing skills for the requirements of your specific project. The best way to check your writer's abilities is to test their skills by ordering small samples of their work.
If you don't wish to share the details of your project with a writer whom you haven't hired yet, you can ask them to write general or annual reports based on random data that you provided.
You can also let the writer create sample user manuals, process manuals, and instruction manuals, which can be shorter in length but indicative of the writer's skills and capabilities.
Freelance Writers Industry Specialization
Check if your freelance writer has a good understanding of your industry and market. Ideally, they should have previous experience within the industry so that the unique jargon of your business translates well into their freelance work.
Technical Writing Detail
While some companies need highly technical writing for their in-house needs, the bulk of it is done for lay users. Brand's personal blog, user manuals, and instruction manuals in particular require a specific creative writing skill. These skills include presenting complex technical information, technology-related terms and ideas, and prepared supporting word reports in simple terms.
The same goes for powerpoint presentations for board members, new employees, potential clients, and other parties who need (in)formal education on technical concepts.
Subject Matter Expertise
Does your future technical writer have (in)formal education in required fileds like consumer electronics? Do you want experienced software engineers with a bachelor's degree, or are you happy with demonstrated skills and expertise, even if self-taught?
In truth, the best technical writers write blogs with the literary mastery of a book author and the professional background of an IT expert. They should write like a native English speaker, even if they're a foreigner, and should have a solid grasp of content marketing as well.
Search Engine Optimization
Content optimization is an important skill in technical writing. If you're publishing user manuals, white papers, and press releases online, then Google should pick them up easily.
Check your candidate's writing samples to see if they're well optimized. Optimization is a separate technical skill, so be sure to make it a part of your job post if needed.
Peer Reviews and Previous Customer Reviews
Check what previous clients had to say about working with your favorite technical writer. In particular, check if they finished work on time and if they did a good job producing technical writing for other companies as well.
If you already have a team of writers or marketing specialists on board, check their peer reviews and see if they like working with your new technical writer.
What Skills Should Technical Writers for Hire Posses?
Aside from already mentioned writing skills, like producing high-quality white papers, press releases, manuals, instructions, and reports, your technical writer should also be able to collect and analyze data. They should be able to get the information they need from excel documents and reports that you provide.
How to Make a Technical Writer Freelance Job Post
Posting technical writing jobs is the first step to discovering one or more technical writers whose talents will reflect well on your business. There are several places to post technical writing jobs, and they include:
-
Job boards
-
The Urban Writers Platform
-
Job Advertising websites
Of course, you can always browse social media groups and pages and add your job post there. However, professional job platforms are safer as they entail verifying ithe dentities of both freelance technical writers and clients.
Before you make your job post, first outline the following project requirements:
1: Company Background
Inform the writer about your business and brand. Explain what products or services you market and check if freelance technical writers are familiar with your particular category and subcategories of products.
2: Project Scope and Business Goals
This could easily be the most important part of your job brief as it informs the writer about your technical content writing requirements. What do you hope to achieve with your technical content writing?
The common requirements for technical content writing include:
-
Content marketing. Most, if not all, tech companies these days target leads and sales by marketing content. Writing is a good way to reach out to customers who, although passionate about technology, still need quality website content and instruction manuals to get the most use of their products.
Every company has their own, specific marketing goals. Sometimes, technical content writers work to increase sales and revenue. Other times, the client's target is to gain more subscribers to their blog, so that their readers and customers turn to them first when they need product maintenance or additional services.
It's important for your technical content goals to be very specific and on-point. Write them down before you hire a technical content writer and include all of your goals in the project brief.
-
Content management. Although many companies prefer for their technical content writer to work on their own, many also wish for the writer to take up further content management duties. Managing content is all about using tools, technologies, and processes for technical content research, writing, and publishing.
Companies govern marketing division structures in different ways, so make sure to outline which of these duties you wish the writer to take up, which people you want them to collaborate with, and to whom they should report.
-
Compelling content writing that has an impact on the reader and achieves the company's sales and revenue goals. An experienced technical writer has sales and conversations in the back of their head at all times.
Technical writing experience entails adjusting tone, style, content structure, and wording in such ways as to promote the product and make the reader want to try it out.
3: Project Management and Processes
Describe your projects and lay out what you want to accomplish with your technical writing. Clarify if you're looking for one or more of the following technical products:
-
Technical documents
-
Technical reports
-
Technical manuals
-
Technical analysis
-
Technical articles
Further, describe the technical skills that your freelance technical writers should possess for your technical product to come out as intended. Outline whether the technical writer will work as a standalone expert within your team, or they'll work with other writers as well.
Aside from that, outline how the freelance technical writer will deliver their work, what stages of the process will that work include, as well as who will check their work and give feedback.
4: How will you track project progress?
Every technical writer should know how you wish to check their content for quality of information and accuracy of technical aspects of their work. Be transparent about the workload that you expect your technical writer to keep up, how often they will submit their work, and at what pace work will be delivered.
Finally, provide samples of what you feel quality deliverables, or quality-written technical documents, technical reports, and technical analysis should look like. That way, your freelancer will be able to determine whether your requirements match their level of technical skills.
5: Project Description
Outline how complex technical information technology is the writer supposed to know before starting to work with your company.
Not all writers have the same educational background, personal talents, and experience when it comes to complex technical information. Technology advances each day, and innovations are brought forward faster than an average person, even an expert in information technology can keep up.
Lay out your project deliverables so that the technical writer is better aware of what they're expected to achieve on the job:
-
Requirements and responsibilities. List experience and academic credentials that you wish your technical writer to have.
-
Additional requirements. Do you need any visuals produced for your technical writing project? If so, are those charts, images, diagrams, or graphics? If you wish your technical writer to have these skills, point it out directly so that you don't end up hiring a professional that lacks this skill set.
-
Project timeline. List your project size and targeted length. Your job description should specify how much work you need to be done, when you want the project to start, and by what date you need it finished.
6: Brand-Specific Language for a Writer to Use
Content marketing of any kind, from email to influencer marketing, entails using a brand-specific voice. The so-called "brand voice" includes writing style, terms, acronyms, and other literary and linguistic expressions that your writer should know in order to effectively communicate your messages.
7: Freelance Technical Writer Skills and Requirements
List the specific skills and qualifications that you wish your technical writing expert to have. Most of the time, technical writers are expected to implement complex concepts quickly.
Technical Writing Definition and Meaning
Technical writing is a broad term that describes content writing within the tech industry. As the industry itself numbers several distinct sciences and dozens of different fields and levels of expertise, professionals who market their technical writing services also have specialized writing niches.
Technical writing jobs are much more different than regular freelance writing jobs. In other industries, freelancers don't need to have educational background and qualifications in order to research and publish website content, blog posts, articles, and social media posts.
They can simply spend a couple of hours to a couple of days researching the topic, and they become equipped enough to write a well-educated piece of content. Writing jobs in industries like technology, medicine, law, and finance carries much more responsibility and liability.
If you make a mistake in your meal recipe, there will be no harm done. Whichever reader makes that recipe, the worst thing that can happen is that they don't like the dish. However, if a writer makes mistakes in a user manual or code documentation, the outcomes can be devastating to users and their clients.
This is why no average writer should write in specialty niches such as technology. Aside from higher requirements for industry knowledge, jargon, and experience, it's also necessary that a writer has practical experience writing technical documents, like manuals and white papers.
A technological writer should also be able to do in-depth research on complex concepts and ideas in technology, and they should know how to convey this information in ways that are interesting and useful to readers.
Beyond that, a technological writer must give detailed attention to each word and phrase they use, because of potential negative customer experiences and added legal liabilities.
If you opt-in for a low-budget writer who'll simply rephrase blog articles for your user manuals, that screams trouble. Their work could potentially leave you vulnerable to legal consequences that can be devastating to your business.
For that reason, The Urban Writers has made technological writing a specialty niche that not every writer can access. Instead, we vet our writers for both educational credentials and experience with technology, plus verified quality writing skills.
With proven freelancer expertise in technical writing, we feel confident to vouch for our writers and guarantee that you can turn over your technical writing tasks to use for hands-off content marketing.
What is a Freelance Technology Writer?
So, what do we expect from our freelance technical writers at The Urban Writers? First and foremost, we ensure that our freelancer technical writers have experience and educational credentials within the tech industry. Aside from that, we expect and test each freelancer's technical writing ability in the following products:
-
SEO writing in the finance and tech niche
-
Blog writing
-
White papers
-
API Documentation
-
User's instructions and manuals
-
Finance writing
-
Writing tutorials, proposals, and lessons plans
-
Plus more!
Technical Writing Consultant Rates
Technical writing jobs fall on the more expensive side of copywriting.
Naturally, the higher price rate derives from the high expertise and refined skills that a writer must possess, plus the increased responsibility and liability that comes with the job.
How Much Do Freelance Technical Writers Charge?
Technical writing experts who charge based on delivered word count, also known as content length or content volume, tend to have higher price rates. In that case, your cost would be up to $2 per word, which could add up to $1,000 per article!
What Are Full-Time Technical Content Writer Freelance Pay Rates?
Hiring a full-time technical writing expert is perhaps the costliest alternative. In fact, full-time technical writing services may add up to $6,000 in monthly costs! Your consumer electronics company might be doing well, but it's questionable whether a yearly expense of over $70,000 on technical writing alone can produce the returns that you were hoping for.
This is the main reason why small and mid-size tech companies choose freelance technical writers instead. Freelance writer services allow you to pay only as much work as you need to be done, and no more.
What's an Average Technical Writer Hourly Rate?
Clients usually invest up to $120 per hour on freelance technical writers. Keep in mind that a well-educated writer doing in-depth research as required hardly writes over 500 words per hour, and you'll find that you need to set aside up to $500 for a single tech article!
At the moment, The Urban Writers doesn't offer hourly rates for our technical writing services. Instead, you'll be charged according to our package offers. That way, we ensure that you only pay for finished work and that you're happy with our productivity.
How to Hire a Freelance Technical Writer With TUW
Now that you know who a technical writer is and what they do, let's talk a little bit more about the process of hiring one. Hiring a technical writer on our platform consists of the following steps:
1: Create Your Profile and Account
Creating an account on The Urban Writers platform is simple and convenient. All you need to do is create an account that includes your basic identity information, and you can begin posting your project for interested freelancers to apply.
At the moment, we give several options for our clients to match with the right freelancers:
Option 1: Orders
Start by choosing a package and posting your project.
Option 2: Job Posts
Create a free project post and review freelancer applications, order a package only once you've selected your contractor.
Option 3: Teams
Create a team of freelancers and organize one major project into several smaller projects while creating mini-teams of freelance writers, editors, and designers.
2: Select Your Technical Writing Package
While the previously mentioned options apply to all our packages, tech writing services fall under two distinct packages that we offer:
-
SEO Writing
-
Non-fiction writing
Based on your project size, intended length, and content needs, you can choose either of the packages. With SEO writing, your content will be optimized for better online traffic. With non-fiction packages, you can get specialty technical writing services for those publications that you won't necessarily post online, like manuals, plans, user instructions, and others.
If you're ever in a dilemma about which package to choose, feel free to ask our customer service for help.
3: Start Your Technical Writing Project and Upload Your Project Brief
Before you start your project, it's a good idea to have all of your project files and requirements in one place. That way, our support team can help overview your needs and advise on the right packages, order size, freelancer choice, and products that you can benefit from.
Starting from your project goals and requirements is also important to level your budget with the kind of outcome that you wish to see for your project. Our support team can review your needs and goals, and then compare them against your budget to find the right solution.
Once you have all of your project files and requirements laid out, you can post your project and watch as dozens of our passionate freelancers compete for a spot on your project. Rest assured that we vetted all of our technical writers and that we can guarantee quality service.
4: Choose Among Your Freelance Writer Applicants
After a sufficient number of freelancers applied for your technical writing project, you can start shortlisting them. During this phase, you can remove those freelancer applications that don't feel like a right match, and you can reach out to your top picks for extra information.
Here, you can use our private messaging feature to chat with freelancers about your project and ask questions that will better separate those that suit your taste from those that don't.
5: Choose Your Favorite Freelance Writer, Editor, and Designer
Once you're done interviewing freelancers, you can start your project by assigning it to your chosen technical writing expert. Both you and the freelancer have a say in the start and end date for your project, while your communications are monitored and facilitated by our support team.
6: Monitor Your Project
Your hands-off technical writing begins the moment your writer starts working on the project. From that moment, you can be as involved as you wish. We advise that our clients monitor how their content is developing, and post comments and feedback in a timely manner to avoid project delays.
7: Approve Upon Completion and Provide Feedback
As your technical writing project approaches its final days, you can review the writer's work and let them know the best way forward. Once our writer completes the written portion of your technical writing, you can then approve the project and move it to the next stage.
After writing, you can proceed to select an editor for your project. Your editor can be someone from an already formed team, or it can be an entirely new freelancer that you've chosen on our platform.
The editing portion of the project unfolds the same way as the writing. You can monitor how the editor is polishing your content, and approve their part of the work once they're finished.
8: Come Back for Some More Technical Writing!
After your technical writing project is complete, you will receive a link to download your finished document. You can then proceed to order more awesome packages, whether tech writing or other creative writing or non-fiction writing.
Hire an SEO Technology Content Writer Now!
So, what are you waiting for? Join our platform, post your project, and hire technical writers right here with The Urban Writers! You're only a couple clicks always from creative, smart, and effective technical writing that will appear to your customers and peers!
Book A Demo With The Urban Writers, and Learn How to Outsource Content Marketing Management
Not ready to order yet? Then get creative! Writing begins with planning and organizing, and what better way to start than book a platform demo? Let our sales representative show you how to navigate our platform and create teams, projects, and job posts. Start using The Urban Writers now!
