General

Running a successful blogging business has a lot of moving parts.

For the vast majority of my blogging career, I thought I had to do it all myself – the content creation, updating, social media promotion, the tech support, the SEO…everything.

However, over the past few years, I’ve discovered that there is value in hiring people to help – especially people who are much smarter than I am at certain topics!

I’ve used college interns successfully for a couple semesters now, which has been a great way to get more content out (especially for my side dish website). However, there are certain things that I just couldn’t have them do (mainly because they were things I’m not sure I could successfully train them in!)

Enter Fiverr. Eralier this year, I invested in Fiverr, and I thought to myself, “Why am I not using Fiverr more?”

Which began my Fiverr obsession. While there have been some misses, I have been extremely impressed thus far with those that I’ve hired – and even more, the price that I’ve paid.

What I use Fivver for as a Blogger

Mobile App

I am in the process of launching a mobile app for my website, The Breastfeeding Mama. I talked with a few people on Fiverr, and I settled on someone who has done a fantastic job. I have been thrilled with his work, and the price was unbeatable.

Here is the seller I am using.

SEO Technical and Content Audit

SEO audits are expensive. I paid $100 for one of these and Fiverr, and I was actually really impressed with the depth of it. The content audit left something to be desired, but I still gleaned some good information. I would definitely say it was in line with some that I’ve seen for A LOT more.

Technical Fixes for Website

The person who did my SEO audit is doing a bunch of technical fixes for me as well. It was affordable, and he’s doing a great job.

Here is who I have used for the audit and technical fixes.

Content Creation

This is a big one. I have launched several new sites – and I have zero desire to write the content. While I use my interns for a lot of content creation, as well as a few others that I have hired, when they aren’t available, I turn to Fiverr.

I have found some excellent writers. You do have to be careful (I’ll talk more about this below), but the prices are, once again, unbeatable. I have found the most success with using someone for Simply Side Dishes, because I have a pretty strict template that is easy to follow.

Logo Design

I got five designs for $20. There was a little bit of back and forth with them, but I was really pleased. These were for some new sites.

Calculator Creation

I got some quotes for creating some calculators for The Breastfeeding Mama from my normal tech guy, but it was way out of my price range. I went on Fiverr, and I was able to get these calculators for way less, and they turned out amazing!

You can see them here:

Free Breastfeeding and Alcohol Calculator

Expressed Breast Milk Bottle Calculator

I also have a few more in the works!

Here is who I used for my calculators.

Facebook and Instagram Ad Management

This is something I am just starting to look into. I have struggled with getting Facebook ads running, and I am talking to a few people that I think will do a great job.

Tips for Successful Fiverr Use

Read Reviews

I never work with someone who doesn’t have reviews. Sometimes they just have a few, but I only use them if I really have had a good conversation.

There are a lot of people with no reviews, and I’m not interested in being a guinea pig. Read the reviews and pick someone who has good ones.

Be Very Clear with Expectations

There can be some communication barriers due to language, though most everyone I’ve worked with speaks English quite well. However, sometimes I have found some miscommunication in what I want and what was delivered – so make sure you are very clear with exactly what you want.

I also find that they are always willing to make changes, so if you aren’t satisfied, don’t be afraid to ask them to fix something!

Negotiation is Always an Option

I don’t always just go and buy a gig straight from the sellers page. I will often ask about bulk discounts, ask if they are willing to take less, etc. Never hurts to negotiate!

Expect Upsells

I am always having the people I work with try and sell me on something else. Sometimes I bite, sometimes I just say, no thank you. It’s just part of how it works. It doesn’t always happen (especially with my content creation people), but I wouldn’t be too put off by it. They are just trying to make some more money!

Double-check

If you are buying content, it is ESSENTIAL to make sure nothing is plagiarized. This is a problem you can run into on Fiverr if you aren’t careful.

I hired someone to write something for a new site, and I ran it through my Grammarly plagiarism checker (I highly recommend using this – as well as for checking their content – and your own – for grammatical errors). I found that there were certain chunks that were phrased the exact same as another article on the web (it was about a different kind of dog, but a similar post).

I asked her about it, and it turns out it was another article she had written – which is what I suspected. She was super nice and said she could rewrite it, but I just made some changes myself. It wasn’t anything major, but you definitely don’t want to get copied content!

You also want to make sure everything makes sense. All of my articles are written well, but sometimes the phrasing of things isn’t really correct. So go through and make edits to make it flow better with your audience.

The Request Feature

I only recently discovered this. You can put out a request for what you are looking for, put the amount that you are wanting to pay, and people will send you offers.

You tend to get a lot of offers – and a lot of them are way more than you have put initially. But you do tend to get some good offers. Just make sure you still read reviews and have a long conversation!

Be Kind

Many of the sellers want to make you happy, and they will go above and beyond to be very polite and do what you want. I would try and be patient and kind too!

So what have you used Fiverr for? Do you have any questions? Comment below!

My interest in blogging professionally started when I took on an internship during my senior year at BYU. At the time, it just seemed like a sweet opportunity to work from home – because I had a baby, and the last thing I wanted to do was leave him!

I am forever grateful for my mentor! I wrote about EHRs and America’s Got Talent – so nothing to do with what I write now. But it helped me realize the opportunities that existed to work from home.

I had never really thought about interns until earlier this year. I was wishing I could all the money in the world to pay people to do all the menial tasks that distract me from doing the things I actually enjoy with blogging. And then I thought, “Hey, why not get an intern?”

I asked about it in a Facebook group and got mixed feelings on it. Someone suggested a course from another blogger that I respected about working with interns on your blog called “The Intern Strategy Course“. It cost me $200, but I am so grateful I took that course. She gave me step by step information on how to get interns, how to set up training, how to making things run smoothly, etc.

I got my first set of interns this summer. It started out promising but soon flopped – and it’s because I didn’t follow her advice to only take on interns that are getting academic credit.

Things didn’t really work out with any of these interns for various reasons. Originally, they had all said they were doing it for academic credit, but shortly before they started, they informed me they weren’t going to do it for credit anymore, but they still wanted to be interns.

Long story short, that didn’t really happen. Some worked longer than others – and I did get some get work during that time, and I am grateful for that. . But eventually they kind of fizzled out. I was frustrated but not willing to give up, because I really felt like having interns could be a game changer. But I made it an absolute rule that they had to be getting academic credit in order to be an intern for me.

So I tried again for the fall semester. There are still a few months left, but it has gone SO much better. All of my interns are committed, very professional, and are doing this it for academic credit. I am in contact with their professors, and it’s gone really smoothly.

It’s been especially really awesome for my Simply Side Dishes website! I have a few paid writers there as well, but they’ve been great for getting out more content, rather than just the twice a week posting we were doing before.

I have a lot of training videos that I had them watch in the beginning, and now I just assign them tasks in Asana every week. They work quickly and I’ve been so impressed.

I have them do all sorts of things for me, including:

• Writing Posts (especially for my side dish blog and my breastfeeding website)
• Make and schedule pins
• Upload printables to my site and optimize for SEO
• Check for broken links
• Update Alt text (I had all my images that didn’t have alt text run through a program from The Blog Fixer, but I have to approve or change them all. Big task!)
• Make videos on JumpRope
• SEO research
• Schedule out content via MissingLettr
• Writing email sequences
• Making printables
• Orphan Posts
• Making eBooks for me
• Updating old posts
• Updating/Creating Category Posts
• Putting descriptions on Pinterest boards
• Hashtag Research
• Affiliate outreach and research for my courseFacebook group management 

I know Christina has used interns for video and I think photography, so those are some options as well if they have that specific skill set (if I ever get someone for those, I would plan to reimburse them for ingredients/materials).

I have plenty of work, and they do great. I try to make sure they are doing things that are actually valuable to them, but they’ve been great.

There are certain conditions you have to meet in order to have an unpaid/credit only intern. The course I took actually didn’t have that up to date, and the old rules were a lot more annoying. You can read them here.

So if you are interested in getting interns, here are a few things I recommend:

• Consider taking Christina’s Course. It is so, so helpful.
• Make sure they are doing it for credit or pay them. If they are doing it for credit and you still want to pay, you may attract a bigger crowd. I haven’t done paid, though. Christina hasn’t either. 
• Come up with a list of EVERYTHING you do and see if it would be worth it to you to have someone an intern do those tasks – and worth your time to prepare them!
• Contact local colleges or a college you have a relationship with. I have gotten all mine through my alma mater. 
• Make sure you have a very detailed listing – here is mine.
• Conduct an actual interview. I had people that looked great on paper and were much less impressive in an interview and vice versa. 
• Expect it to take some time to get up and running. It took me quite some time to get training modules done, and in the beginning,they seem to have more questions.
• Have an internship welcome letter that explains the internship,what they’ll be doing, etc. (here is mine)
• Have a timesheet for them to track their time
• Be patient and understanding of their time. Make sure they are actually learning something!
• I have my interns work on a task-based system. I give them tasks at the beginning of the week, and I have them tell me if they need to meet with me. I try to be available via text or email throughout the day to answer questions. Some of my interns have specific hours they work, so I especially try to be available during those times. It is up to them to let me know if they need more tasks or hours, but this hasn’t been a problem so far.
• Be aware of how many hours they need for their internship before committing
• Assign tasks that you don’t mind having to train someone new in every semester.
• Use a task management program like  Asana or Trello
• Use Lastpass for passwords
• Have primary and secondary tasks (primary tasks are things typically assigned weekly, secondary they do either every week on a regular basis OR when they need more work)
• Put in the time to make training modules. I make them really fast using a screen recording software or with my phone’s screen recording. 
• I find the easiest content to have them do are things that follow a certain template (like my recipes) or are easy to research. I don’t have them do DIY posts or things that require more hands-on knowledge. I also don’t have them do affiliate heavy posts.
• I found people through the Communications department. Depending on what you need, you could find people through graphic design, video, photography, and business departments as well. 
• Write a great listing! Be thorough. 

This is not for everyone. It does take some micromanaging. As demonstrated earlier this summer, it doesn’t always go as planned (but there are ways to mitigate this). There is turnover – after the semester is over, they are gone! Factor in the time it takes to interview and train new people. 

You could also just have some do writing for you. I have lots of tasks that I need others to do. But you can make it a lot less complicated than me!

I have people I pay to do other work for me – things I don’t want to have to train over and over again for, or that I just trust the way they do them and don’t care to change. I wouldn’t base your entire business on interns. 

Obviously, I haven’t done this for a long time yet. It’s been a learning process, and I’m finding what things I like them to do, and what things I prefer to do or like to have one of my paid contractors do. But I’m finding it to work well – especially for my newer sites!