Half the battle of hiring a freelance mental health writer often comes down to finding someone with the right experience and skillset for your company’s needs. If there’s a mismatch between your goals and what a writer is able to provide, then both parties are left frustrated and disappointed.
Upwork, the freelance hiring platform, has approximately 18 million freelancers across more than 75 different categories – and writers make up around 12% of this number. This means that the likelihood of a job post being swamped by applicants who don’t meet the criteria for the role is extremely high.
With the sensitive and nuanced nature of mental health writing, it’s important to work with writers who know what they’re talking about. But how can you get started with the hiring process? That’s where we can help.
This article covers all you need to know about how to hire a freelance mental health writer. Including recognising what to look for, SEO considerations, questions to ask during the hiring process, and mistakes to avoid.
What Should I Look for in a Professional Mental Health Writer?
When considering hiring a freelance mental health writer, it’s important that you find someone who both understands your business’s needs and is driven to produce quality content that fulfils them.
They should have qualifications in mental health, extensive experience in creating unique writing, and a passion for what they do. Additional perks include in-depth knowledge of SEO and content management systems – which we’ll get into in more detail later in this article.
Overall, a good attitude is key. You need to be able to trust in the fact that you’ll be able to give feedback without worrying that you’ll be met with resistance. The content creation process is a collaboration, so open communication can lead to increased productivity and greater long-term success.
How Do I Select an Expert Freelance Wellness Writer?
When it comes to choosing a freelance wellness writer, the right ‘fit’ comes down to what your project needs are. If you need long-form content, then the writer should have extensive experience in creating comprehensive courses or books.
If your requirements are for a professional in clinical, educational, or medical writing, then the writer should have in-depth knowledge and qualifications in these areas. In other words, finding the right match is defined by your objectives.
At PsychWrite, our team is multidisciplinary, so you’re matched with a writer who will understand your goals and meet your standards. The editing process also ensures that due diligence is observed.
Is SEO-Friendly Content Writing for Mental Health Websites Possible?
The joy of hiring an experienced mental health writer is that they’re also often an expert in keyword research for mental health topics, increasing the online visibility of your organisation. Or, at least, they should be.
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of boosting the position of your website so that it appears higher up in organic search results. Let’s try to break it down a little so you can better understand why it matters for your organisation.
‘Spiders’ are software devices that ‘crawl’ through web content to pinpoint material relevant to certain search terms on providers like Google. Things like keywords, subtitles, meta descriptions, hyperlinks, and so on can improve your visibility – but they can be difficult to strike a balance with.
At PsychWrite, SEO is second nature in our mental health writing services. Yet, we aim to do it in a way that never reads as ‘forced.’ When writing style has a strong ‘voice’ and a naturalistic ability to manage SEO, a reader shouldn’t be able to detect SEO strategies. As a result, your website should get more views, leading to higher conversion rates, but readers also develop a level of trust.
Is a Freelance Writer for Trauma-Informed Mental Health Content a Good Idea?
If you’re interested in producing content for people with a history of trauma, hiring someone with a background in trauma-informed care is essential.
While trauma triggers can vary from person to person, mental health content has the capacity to remind people of a traumatic event, potentially leading to intense physical and emotional reactions. Therefore, key strategies for helping people with a background of trauma include providing safe and compassionate information, which doesn’t retraumatise those seeking support and necessary services.
At PsychWrite, we understand how triggers can make people feel ‘stuck’ in their trauma, and endeavor to use trauma-informed practices whenever we create content. Whether this means providing trigger warnings or using language that is less likely to evoke an acute response, our aim is to empower instead of create a sense of loss of control.
In other words, instead of prompting a client to think What is wrong with me?, we encourage them to think What has happened to me?
What Should I Ask for During the Hiring Process?
Hiring a freelance mental health writer can feel a little daunting – after all, you’re putting your brand in someone else’s hands. So you’re free to ask anything you like.
If you want to see samples and reviews or would like a trial period, ask. It’s also good to understand the writer’s background and skill set to better understand if they’re the right fit for your needs.
Also, questions about SEO and content management system knowledge help you grasp how views on Google translate to conversion – and how to improve this.
At PsychWrite, we love to answer client questions because it gives us the opportunity to discuss how we can help you increase your organisation’s value. Our belief is that mental health website content creation should be a symbiotic relationship for growth.
Who Owns the Intellectual Property of the Content?
Intellectual property rights allow organisations to use content however they see fit and protects them from writers selling this content on to other companies. In other words, if your content property is used anywhere other than for your organisation, your rights would be infringed. However, unless you have a contract that expressly states that you own the copyright to content, you’re not protected.
PsychWrite always operates on a contract basis, making sure each client recognises that they are protected and that the intellectual property of the content is theirs.
Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Freelance Mental Health Writer
Finding the right talent for your organisation can be a challenge, so it can be helpful to know what to avoid when hiring an expert mental health writer. The following are mistakes people commonly make when hiring, and tips for how to avoid them.
Not Being Transparent From the Start
If you’re hiring someone from a freelancing platform, like Upwork or Fiverr, the skillset of the freelancer is always a little in question at the start of the process. To ensure that they understand that you’re not going to accept substandard work, it’s good to be transparent at the start about your editing process.
For instance, by letting them know that you’ll be running work through an AI detector and checking references and accuracy of content. You could also let them know that revisions will be required if the work isn’t up to scratch.
At PsychWrite, we ensure the quality of work through an internal process of vetting and editing. This way, we can be confident that the content is always ready to be submitted to the client to meet their deadlines.
Accepting Poor Quality Work
In a similar vein to the previous point, letting poor quality work slide sets a standard that a writer may continue if they feel it’s acceptable.
Everyone has ups and downs and days in which they feel more productive than others. However, it’s important to set a benchmark for quality while still maintaining open communication to determine why the standard of work has slipped. Of course, if the work is substandard from the outset, this is likely an indicator that this writer isn’t suitable for your needs.
Performance concerns can be highly stressful for any professional freelance writer, especially in the age of AI. Our policy is to provide regular training, constructive feedback, and support to our writers to ensure that they feel equipped to always create content to the best of their ability. Plus, our editing processes prevent the risk of inaccuracies or potentially harmful mental health content from being delivered to clients.
Hiring an Expert Mental Health Writer With PsychWrite
At PsychWrite, every team member is experienced in both mental health and content writing. Content is produced in an internal process, starting with the freelance mental health writer, and then passing over to the editor, who analyses the work for quality and accuracy.
As a result of this process, clients are given engaging, high-quality content that reflects their voice and needs, as well as ranks highly on Google.
Whether you’re looking for writing services for therapy course materials, blog writing services for anxiety or depression resources, or an expert in keyword research for mental health topics, PsychWrite has what you need.
