CopyPress: A New Model for Outsourcing Your Web Content Needs


Recently I got a press pass to attend the BlueGlass online marketing conference in Florida.  One of the highlights of my visit was a demo of a new product called CopyPress. CopyPress is an outsourced content-creation service for online content.  If you need content created for a blog or  website, or a white paper or other use, CopyPress streamlines the process of commissioning that content. CopyPress writing servicesHOW COPYPRESS WORKS

As a customer of the service, you go to the CopyPress website and order the content you need.  Then CopyPress finds the writers and manages the process from start to finish.  Eventually the content is delivered back to you via the CopyPress Web platform in a variety of formats ready for you to download or publish to your own website.

As a customer, you place your order, pay for and receive your ordered content online. But behind the website, there are still human beings — writers — delivering a creative service.  This is not machine-generated content (the scourge of the Internet!).

ADVANTAGES OF ONLINE SERVICES

CopyPress is fundamentally a service that has been “productized” and given a Web interface.  Regular readers know that I am fan of this type of business model.  It is a business model and delivery model that’s getting more common today.  (Other online services that I’ve reviewed include PointBanner.com for getting banner ads, and LogoWorks.com for getting logos.)

I think such online services empower small businesses, and offer distinct advantages:

  • Speed and convenience — CopyPress is designed to make it relatively fast and easy for you to hire Web writers online. You go to one central place and deal with one entity, instead of having to recruit and hire individual freelance writers every time you need one. That’s usually less work and time commitment for you as the customer.
  • Self-serve, 24/7 — Services like CopyPress  have another advantage. You can take advantage of the service on your own schedule 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  So if you are like me, and need to work in the early mornings, late evenings, weekends or holidays, an online service is ideal.
  • Lower cost — CopyPress has developed technology that has streamlined processes for the customer-facing front end, as well as the back-end interaction with the writers. This technology and process standardization presumably keeps their costs down — cost savings they pass on to you.

But CopyPress is not a writers’ marketplace nor a freelance writers’ job board.  You don’t put out writing jobs for bid, and then have to select individual writers and negotiate prices.  Instead, CopyPress manages the process of creating content for you. CopyPress hires qualified Web writers who not only can write well, but understand search engine optimization.

CopyPress assigns your project to a qualified writer. CopyPress checks work for plagiarism and if you request it, for SEO benefits.  CopyPress also has an editor review the content and send it back to the writer for revisions if it is not acceptable quality.  You then have the ability to review the content and ask for revisions, also.

COPYPRESS PRICING

At the time of this writing, CopyPress’s typical prices range from $5 – $40 for an ecommerce catalog description, to $10 – $60 for a blog post, to $20 – $200 for a whitepaper.  However, numerous factors come into play, including length and customization required, and prices may vary.  CopyPress also provides bulk pricing for large packages of content.

CopyPress is not going after the cut-rate market that some content services go after.  The company is positioning the service as a middle-range offering — above the low-end content creation services, but not as expensive as some high-end custom content.

CopyPress is still in a controlled public Beta. Right now if you want to use the service, you have to apply on the website.  CopyPress, created by the BlueGlass online marketing agency, is only accepting a limited number of of Beta users at this time.

I have not yet tried the service myself. Would love to hear from anyone who has tried it, and your impressions.  Please leave a comment below sharing your experience.

11 Comments ▼

Anita Campbell Anita Campbell is the Founder, CEO and Publisher of Small Business Trends and has been following trends in small businesses since 2003. She is the owner of BizSugar, a social media site for small businesses.

11 Reactions
  1. I talked to these guys at PubCon in Las Vegas and this is a very cool service. They do all the vetting so you get a quality writer and writers don’t have to worry about pestering clients about overdue invoices.

  2. Perhaps I am blind, but when I visit the CopyPress website, it seems to not provide any way to actually review or purchase anything. I filled out their basic contact form and 4 days later have never heard back from them. What is the trick to get this service?

    • Hi Nancy, as I mentioned, the site and service is in Beta and Beta users must be individually approved.

      They may have enough Beta users and no longer be accepting new ones — although if that’s the case, I would hope they’d respond back. Let’s see if someone from the company notices your comment and addresses it.

      – Anita

  3. Hi Nancy! My name is Ryan Whitney and I am the Community Manager for CopyPress. I would be glad to assist you further in this process. You can reach me at rwhitney@blueglass.com so we can discuss your content needs! Thank you for inquiring!

  4. Hi Robert, yes, I think it’s a cool service, and I look forward to seeing a successful Beta.

    I’m fascinated whenever I see a creative service being transformed into a model where it’s self-service and easy to sign up for. From the customer’s perspective, if you need content in quantity or just don’t have time to interview and select a service provider individually, an online service like CopyPress can be a godsend.

    – Anita

  5. Beta users? Not accepting new ones? I’m sorry, color me clueless here, but what the HECK does that mean? Why not just put their service offering completely in place online, and then offer it to the world? It seems rather pointless to me to bother, unless they are ready to go full steam ahead. They did contact me finally! and when it was all said and done, I was just not comfortable about the method they used to do business. Perhaps when they are no longer “beta” (whatever that means) then they will actually provide more mainstream online platforms by which to take orders and secure payment for their services.

  6. Hi Anita, I contacted these guys right away, and talked to them about doing 20 posts for $60 each. A rep contacted me via email pretty quickly, and responded to my inquiries the same way – sometimes answering in a few minutes. But – this rep left the company, so a week or so later (after about 5 days of Radio silence), a new guy contacts me, and tells me he is taking over. Ok – we go back thru everything, and I tell him I have a bit of an issue with the idea I am not going to get 2 rounds of revisions for my $60. He modified the contract to include this for me – and then he too, left the company. I am now dealing with the third rep this month – but all have been very nice.
    The biggest drawback so far, is the contract – they have a multi-page contract with some very tightly worded conditions. For instance, had I not specified otherwise, a second round of revisions on an original could have run me a couple hundred dollars an hour for them to fix. (!) I am not saying that their contract is out of line in what it states – but it seems pretty heavy-handed for what it is covering, to me. They also only allow 1 day to review changes – then they are automatically considered accepted. This seemed a little weird to me – at least 72 business hours is a little more common than 1 day to review/approve. There are 13 pages of terms to sort through here.
    For me, it meant that this contract had to get in line for my lawyers to review, and no telling how long it will be before the T&Cs are agreed upon.
    The people I have dealt with were all very nice – but 3 reps in about as many weeks was a little weird, as is a huge, clause-filled contract for this stuff.
    If the lawyers approve it for me, I will go ahead. I can’t wait to see what kind of content they produce – it has a lot to live up to.
    Cheers,
    Marty

  7. Hi Marty and everyone,

    I am the Product Manager for CopyPress and BlueGlass Interactive and just wanted to address some of the points Marty brought up.

    We definitely have had some turnovers in the sales dept at our company but as with any growing company this is expected as we try to find quality talent. I am that 3rd person he is working with and
    assure everyone that if the initial person you are working with leaves the company, I will take over so that you wont be passed around. We value each and every one of our accounts.

    On the terms and conditions of the agreement when you sign up for an account, our process is that once you submit an order form, you have one business day to make changes to your order w/o incurring a fee.

    Once the articles are ready for you to approve, you have 3 business days to approve, reject or request a revision before its automatically approved.

    We work with all clients before the order form is processed to make sure it is detailed enough for our writers and editors such that it will be approved by the client the first time. For first time clients we test out a couple of articles first before putting the whole order in production.

    I hope that this clears up all the points Marty has made and I apologize for any confusion our previous sales staff have made if this was not explained thoroughly.

    We are still in Beta and are fine tuning the process as we work with more and more customers and any feedback is appreciated.

    Happy Holidays 🙂

  8. I just used a service like this to get a design for my ebook. It’s called That’s Creative Book Design. It was just very clear and painless–prices up front, each service clear. I think it could work for content, too.
    Suzanne

  9. Hi Marty and all,

    There is another website which offers the same service and actually gives you a 72 hour timeframe to review/request changes to an article. As regards the contract, maybe have a look at the website’s terms and conditions and see if they are more favourable http://www.hotype.co.uk It’s all paid through paypal so no delays or chasing people up for money. It’s worth a look, although it’s a relatively new website it looks very good.