Essential Outsourcing Tips Every Blogger Needs to Boost Productivity

Starting a new blog can feel overwhelming with so many different tasks on your plate. You have to handle writing content, doing keyword research, guest blogging, designing your website, building links, managing email campaigns, and affiliate marketing—just to name a few. Prioritizing these tasks is challenging, especially if you’re juggling your blog alongside a full-time job.

When I launched my blog in 2019, I was working 50 hours a week at a tech startup in Austin. It was a demanding schedule. I remember one evening, stuck in traffic after work, feeling exhausted as I sat on my couch. I turned on Netflix, and the last thing I wanted was to sit back at my computer and work on my blog. The idea of building a successful blog—let alone generating over $80,000 per month—seemed out of reach. But then it clicked: Why not outsource some of these tasks to make progress around the clock, not just during my limited free time? This way, I could manage my blog like a real business and focus on high-impact activities instead of just writing posts late at night.

To stay sane while building my side hustle, I learned to delegate certain responsibilities. This allowed me to use my limited time more effectively and keep moving forward.

What’s Your Time Worth? If you work 40 hours a week at your main job and aim to spend an additional 20 hours on your blog, what can you realistically achieve? Writing a 500-word blog post typically takes about 1-2 hours, according to HubSpot. So, in 20 hours, you could produce between 5,000 and 10,000 words, which translates to roughly two to three long-form articles weekly—more than enough to grow your blog substantially. However, dedicating that much time to content creation leaves little room for essential business tasks like link building, outreach for guest posts, establishing affiliate partnerships, or growing your email list. These activities are crucial for long-term success but often get overlooked.

Remember, you’re not just a writer—you’re a business owner. Sometimes, focusing solely on content isn’t the best use of your time. To succeed quickly and sustainably, you need to prioritize high-value activities. How can you accelerate your blogging growth so you can replace your day job in months instead of years? In this guide, I’ll show you the five key areas to outsource and how to do it effectively. By focusing on the most impactful tasks, you speed up your journey to passive income. Let’s dive in.

What Should You Outsource as a Blogger? Currently, I spend most of my time on five main activities: guest posting and link building, publishing new content, managing affiliate marketing and monetization, updating old posts, and building my community through email and social media. Trying to handle all of these alone isn’t efficient. Outsourcing some of these tasks allows me to scale faster and build influence in my niche. So, what should be your first priority?

1. Content writing. This is often the biggest time sink. While I don’t outsource every post, I recognize I can’t write everything myself. For example, if I need to produce a detailed 5,000-word article, I have two options: Spend 5-10 hours writing it myself or spend just an hour editing and publishing a ghostwritten draft. The latter involves keyword research and content planning, but I delegate the actual writing. Once I receive the finished document, I just make final edits, upload it, and publish. This approach saves a significant amount of time and allows me to focus on strategic growth activities.

How to Outsource Content Creation:

Start by hiring a dedicated writer to develop initial drafts for your blog. You can easily transfer content from Google Docs to WordPress by using the Mammoth .docx Converter plugin.

Guidelines for Hiring a Writer:

Many bloggers turn to platforms like Fiverr or Upwork to find writers, but this isn’t ideal for long-term collaborations. Freelancers on these sites often work with multiple clients, which can lead to inconsistent delivery. Instead, look for a single dedicated writer who will focus solely on your blog and deliver steady content.

When I was hiring my first writer, I posted a job on the ProBlogger job board. This platform hosts many talented writers seeking work, and you can specify your exact needs in your job posting.

When creating your job listing, clearly include details such as: who you are, the niche of your blog, expected number of articles per week, your rates, and ask for writing samples. This clarity helps attract the right candidates. After posting and promoting the job, I received over 50 applications within just two days.

Next, review resumes and samples carefully to identify writers whose style, experience, and rates match your needs. Shortlist the top 3-4 candidates and ask each to produce a sample article or outline so you can evaluate their work. Ultimately, select the writer who provides high-quality content consistently and meets deadlines—timeliness is crucial. If a writer delays the first draft, it’s likely a red flag for future projects.

Once you choose your writer, arrange a video call via Zoom or email to discuss your overall strategy, clear expectations, and payment arrangements. Building good communication ensures smoother collaboration.

Here’s my typical process with writers: I begin with keyword research and develop a content calendar containing 5-10 upcoming posts. I maintain a shared document with details including target keywords, titles, expected length, example articles, and headings. Adjustments can be made based on your comfort level and the relationship with your writer.

For determining ideal word count, I often Google my keywords and review the top-ranking posts. I then use the Chrome extension Word Counter Plus. Simply select the article text, right-click, and see the exact word count. I aim for my content to be slightly longer than competitors.

Another helpful tip: instruct your writer to source any statistics and link images properly. In Google Docs, ensure images are optimized JPEGs no larger than 800 pixels wide, with descriptive alt text. When converted to WordPress, these alt texts often become the file names, enhancing SEO.

Once your article is ready in Google Docs, the next step is transferring it into WordPress. Download the document and use a tool like the Mammoth .docx Converter plugin, or an alternative, to move your content into the WordPress editor. After that, just add your blog category, relevant tags, a meta description, and set your URL slug. Don’t forget to set external links to open in new tabs to enhance usability.

What it costs to outsource writing varies quite a bit depending on the writer’s expertise and niche. Prices can be as low as 3 cents per word up to 25 cents per word. A good range to expect for quality writers is between five and ten cents per word. For a 1,000-word blog post, that equates to roughly $50 to $100. If you aim to publish one 2,000-word article each week, your monthly investment would be approximately $200 to $400.

Moving to link building—now that you know how to produce more content, the next step is to boost your off-site SEO efforts. The main goals here are creating more content and acquiring backlinks to that content. Backlinks directly influence your Domain Authority (DA), which is crucial for ranking.

Backlinks are essentially votes of confidence from other sites, signaling to Google that your content is valuable. When your DA starts at zero as a new blogger, ranking for competitive keywords becomes very difficult. Despite the desire to earn passive backlinks—links that come naturally when others find your content useful—these are often a myth. High-ranking sites are more visible and attract passive links more easily, creating a cycle that’s hard to break.

To accelerate your growth, you need to actively build backlinks yourself. For example, I managed to increase my Ahrefs Domain Rating from zero to 78 over 18 months, amassed over 70,000 backlinks, and grew my monthly traffic from nothing to over 500,000 visitors. How did I do it? I hired an assistant to help manage outreach, guest posting, and partnerships.

Six months after launching, I was earning just over $10,000 a month primarily through consulting, so I decided to hire my first freelance help. I looked for an outreach specialist on Indeed.com, someone skilled in relationship-building and content editing. Responsibilities included reaching out for guest post opportunities, pitching topics, managing relationships with influencers, and overseeing blog post edits. The goal was to create a system that reduces my workload while increasing guest posts and backlinks.

My assistant now handles the entire process—from initial cold emailing to pitching ideas, getting approvals, coordinating with writers, reviewing content, adding my links, and sending everything for my final approval. With a skilled assistant, you can significantly scale your link-building strategy through guest posts and collaborations.

Effective collaboration with your assistant relies on establishing a good rapport and having regular check-ins to align your objectives. I also encourage my assistant to link back to her own site to help her build her online presence because having someone invested is crucial. To start, create a shared Gmail inbox that both of you manage, and provide your assistant with guidelines on how to support your outreach efforts.Here is your rewritten and easy-to-understand content in HTML format, with the structure maintained:

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Identify the websites within your niche where you want to publish guest posts. Make a list of these sites to start reaching out. Then, develop a template email that your assistant can use to pitch guest posting opportunities. After compiling the list, they will find the contact email addresses and send out the messages on your behalf.

Once a site responds positively, your assistant can suggest guest post topics for your approval—this will require some coaching. When a topic is approved, your assistant can then pass along the approved title, submission guidelines, and notes to your writers (we’ll cover this process in more detail soon). Typically, writing a guest post takes about one to two weeks. Once the article is finished, your assistant can carefully insert your links and send it back to you for a final review. If everything looks good, give the go-ahead for submission. Be sure to spend time on the final edits to ensure the article matches your style before it goes live.

How much should you pay your assistant? It’s best to hire someone locally rather than using a virtual assistant. I recommend paying around $20-25 per hour for about 20 hours of work each week, which tends to provide dedicated support for your guest posting efforts.

Back in 2019, I published over 80 articles on my own blog and more than 80 guest posts on other sites. Altogether, this amounted to over half a million words published. However, I probably wrote only around 10% of that myself—most of it was outsourced.

The key to scaling your guest posting is to avoid doing all the writing yourself. As mentioned earlier, if you hire a content creator for your blog and an outreach assistant, who will actually produce the guest articles? Hopefully, it’s not you! To expand this system effectively, consider hiring a ghostwriter specifically for your guest posts. This is similar to hiring a writer for your blog but with a focus on your niche topics. Look for ghostwriters with experience in your industry—for example, a marketing ghostwriter should be familiar with marketing-related content. If they lack niche-specific knowledge and are asked to write about complex topics, their lack of expertise will be noticeable.

How much should you pay your guest post ghostwriter? Expect to pay between $0.05 and $0.10 per word. If you aim to publish four guest posts monthly—about one each week—and each post averages 1,500 words, your monthly investment will be roughly $300 to $600.

Besides hiring writers and outreach helpers, don’t overlook the importance of quality graphic design. Visual elements significantly influence your site’s conversion rates, user experience, and overall brand credibility. When I first launched my blog, I used a simple WordPress theme and handled most designs myself, which looked a bit amateurish. I also ordered some cheap Fiverr gigs for things like lead magnets and eBooks, but the results were often disappointing. Once I started earning money from my site, I invested in professional graphic design services. I began working with a firm called BrandStrong. They charge a flat monthly fee and can manage 1-3 design projects at once, covering everything from blog images and infographics to eBooks and product visuals.

How much does it typically cost to hire a web graphic designer? I pay around $286 per month for their services, which is a worthwhile investment for high-quality visuals that elevate your blog’s appearance.

Although…

My blog had a successful day today, but I made quite a few rookie mistakes along the way. Initially, I launched my website on Squarespace.

After discovering its limitations, I made the decision to switch over to WordPress. Over time, I also changed my selected theme, switched my hosting provider, and made numerous small adjustments to improve my site.

As I progressed, I realized having a developer on my team makes a big difference. They’ve helped me move my hosting, create a custom WordPress theme, keep my core files and plugins updated, review monthly performance reports, and troubleshoot technical issues or make design tweaks.

Although I have some basic HTML and CSS skills, I’m not a web development expert. If you’re struggling with WordPress or unsure about managing DNS records, hosting, or other technical tasks, hiring a developer for a few hours can be a smart investment.

How to hire a web developer:

You might not need to do this initially and should only consider hiring a developer if you want a custom-designed website and ongoing support. When starting out, it’s perfectly fine to handle everything yourself. Select a straightforward theme like Kadence combined with Kadence Blocks to begin building your site on your own.

The cost of hiring a developer varies depending on the project scope. Their hourly rates typically range from $75 to $150. For example, a simple web migration might only take two hours, while a complex, fully customized website could require 40 to 100 hours.

With a skilled web designer and developer on your side, you can spend less time worrying about technical challenges and more time focused on growing your business.

Summary

To sum up, here are the top five areas you should consider outsourcing as a business-minded blogger:

– Content creation
– Link building
– Guest post outreach
– Web design
– Web development

If budget constraints prevent hiring help right now, don’t worry—being a blogger means you can do everything yourself at first. It might take longer to grow your blog into a thriving business, but it’s entirely doable.

If you have the resources, start by hiring a content writer to take some workload off your plate. Once your blog starts generating revenue, consider hiring your first assistant. Beyond that, it’s all about how much you’re willing to delegate.

Outsourcing key responsibilities transforms your role from just a blogger into a business owner:

– I plan my content calendar and do keyword research instead of writing every piece myself.
– I oversee my guest posting system rather than getting bogged down in the details of each pitch.
– I publish and scale my content without being stuck in the writing process.
– I manage design projects instead of spending hours in Photoshop.

This shift gives me more time to build affiliate relationships, update content for better SEO, collaborate with influencers and brands, and grow an engaged community.

Focus on the big picture, develop systems, and amplify your impact. Remember, blogging is ultimately about growing your online influence, and no one can do it alone.

For more resources, check out my extensive guides on starting a blog like a business and how to make money blogging.