Best Tools to Manage Freelance Writers and Journalists

Hiring freelance writers and journalists for your business can be beneficial in a variety of ways. Freelance writers and journalists can bring a wide range of expertise, niche specialties, and talent to your business’s time-sensitive projects. To manage a fleet of international freelance writers and journalists, however, can be quite burdensome for a small team without the right tools. 

Even though freelance writers and journalists work autonomously and without much supervision, managing them requires a solid foundation of best practices. 

Luckily, there are plenty of freelance management solutions available. Many deal with the project management side of hiring freelance writers, while others streamline communication and payment. 

To help managers better manage their team of freelance writers and journalists, we’ve put together this guide of the best tools. 

How to manage a freelance team of content writers

Equally important, but compared to full-time employees, freelance writers require separate HR requirements. While salaried staff typically sign an employment contract designating duties, freelancers may be required to sign a project agreement and tax forms before work can be started. 

Also, to hire and pay independent contractors, freelancers must complete and sign a W-9. Then, at the beginning of the year, businesses that have paid freelancers are required to send and file freelancer 1099s. 

If your business uses many freelancers over the course of the fiscal year, managing them can become time consuming quickly. 

Project management tools for contractors 

Managing freelancers over WordPress

If your business is looking to hire freelance writers for content marketing, WordPress is the go-to solution for today’s biggest publishers. WordPress offers your business the ability to start a company blog, newsletter, online store, or simply a website. In addition, it also has the ability to maintain content analytics and third-party applications. 

Directing editorial teams via Asana

Asana is designed to help your team better assign, track, and manage its work. Instead of shuffling through dozens of emails and direct messages, assign freelance writers tasks in Asana and track their progress. Asana allows your whole team to track freelance progress 

Communicating with freelancers over Slack

Managing a team of freelancers also means communicating with a variety of people across the globe. Slack, the instant messaging application designed to organize conversations into channels, allows your team to stay on top of freelancer communications and ensure work is moving forward without backlog. Slack, lauded as the “digital HQ,” streamlines freelancer management by providing transparency and communication across teams.  

Pay and manage freelancers with OutVoice

OutVoice is a freelancer management and payments system designed to help businesses onboard, manage, and pay freelancers and contractors. OutVoice’s all-in-one platform allows businesses to reduce freelancer onboarding and payments to a single click. Store tax documents and contractor agreements in one place and automate invoices automatically. Teams can easily set up delegated controls and permissions to fit their workflows. OutVoice’s Slack and WordPress integrations allow your team to bring freelancer payments into these tools without disrupting editorial workflow. To schedule a demo, click here.