The Express Writers service at a glance
Express Writers keeps it relatively simple, but aims to offer as much as it can within a “quality over quantity” philosophy. Breaking it down, we found both positives and negatives:
Positives
- high-quality content
- personal approach
- proofreading included
- simple order process
- design work etc. available
Negatives
- high prices
- longer turnaround time
- client can’t choose writer
- large or regular orders need to
- be discussed in person
Express Writers: scam or star?
Having looked closely at the service offered by Express Writers, we’re impressed by the quality level and personal aspect of the business. It doesn’t have a snazzy platform like many other agencies, but you can still have all your content needs met – including custom design work. Things to watch out for are a longer turnaround time than with other online content platforms, and higher prices. Overall, it’s a good choice for businesses with big budgets, no time constraints, and a focus on content quality and SEO effectiveness.
What is Express Writers?
Express Writers is a content service for brands, marketers, and agencies that aims to be an “all-in-one content writing solution”. Employing hand-picked expert writers and content strategists, it delivers through a quick and easy-to-use online Content Shop. Want to find out more? Here’s our complete Express Writers review.
Express Writers is one of the smaller online content agencies: it currently has around 90 writers, creators, and editors on its books, but has still completed upwards of 30,000 global projects. Founder Julia McCoy set up the agency in 2011 and has grown it organically, largely through a successful SEO blog that is “the proof of our own pudding”. Express Writers places a strong emphasis on quality over quantity, and adopts a personal approach to creating content that’s often lacking with other larger agencies. Though it’s based in the USA, international clients cited on the website include Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, Nordstrom, and Bank Austria.
How the Express Writers service works
Express Writers operates a simple four-step ordering process that’s slightly different to what you might know from other agencies. First up, visit the Content Shop and place an order for your content according to word count and expertise level. Only after you’ve paid will you fill out the briefing forms (something you can also do in direct contact with a staff member if you have a large order). A writer will be personally matched to you and the content proofread before it’s delivered. Two free revisions are included if you’re not ready to approve the content right away.
While most content creation services direct you to set up a client account, with Express Writers you can view a wide range of services all at one glance. The Content Shop provides a clear, searchable interface of the many options available, including different types of blog posts and plans (general through expert), infographics, email copy, case studies, video scripts, press releases, and more. Video producers and Adobe design experts are also on hand to craft original promo videos or custom images.
Once you’ve decided what you’re after – an expert blog, for example – you can customize your order. Pick a word count (from 300 to 4,000 words) and add on flat-rate extras such as original meta descriptions and headers, and even SEO topic research. The latter includes a low-competition keyword sourced by experts through Ahrefs and SEMrush, which you can approve before your content is written around it.
Once you’ve paid using PayPal, Stripe, or your existing account balance, you’ll be prompted to fill in your project details. These can be saved as a template and loaded into future orders for convenience. The details are what you might expect: a description of the content, check-boxes for tone of voice, keywords, audience, and how you would like it delivered. It’s also possible to upload attachments and further information.
Express Writers will match you with an expert content creator who has experience in your industry. If you get on well, it’s possible to request work from this same writer in the future – though note that the agency can’t guarantee exclusive availability.
Turnaround time depends on the type of content you’ve ordered, but is typically around 4–7 days for expert and specialty content, 2–3 days for general content, and 10 days for authority content. This timeframe includes expert proofreading and a plagiarism check with Copyscape, but not any revisions you may request.
Pricing
We just mentioned four different types of content: general, expert, specialty, and authority. This is the system Express Writers uses to grade its writers, and prices are set accordingly. They begin at 9¢/word for general content, and rise through 19¢/word at expert level all the way to 30¢/word for authority content. The service level also gets better the more you pay, with advanced editing included in specialty content, and SEO research and custom illustrations coming with top-level authority content.
If you’d like that translated into content terms, we found the following quotes in the Content Shop:
- 500-word expert blog post with meta description, header and title = $105
- 100-word product description = $19
- 5 social media posts with 5 designed images = $140
- Single-page case study with interview = $305
One good feature of Express Writers is that the Content Shop features examples of every content type. As we clicked through, we were impressed by the overall quality, but noticed little difference between general and authority levels. The higher-priced content types do have a more expert tone, include screenshots and infographics (in blog posts, white papers, etc.), and are free of spelling or grammar errors. The general content is still very good quality, though perhaps with one or two more mistakes and a slightly less advanced style of writing. All in all, it really does look as though only the top 2% of applicants make the cut to work for Express Writers.
Other features of the Express Writers service
Although Express Writers claims to offer specific services for brands, agencies, and marketers, the range seems to be the same across the board. One point of particular interest to agencies and entrepreneurs, however, is that full content management can be included as part of a custom package. Express Writers also offers to take care of design, case-study interviews, image sourcing, and illustrations for larger projects such as eBooks and white papers.
Finally, Express Writers offers plenty of online resources. These include free downloads on everything from “How to Rank in the Top of Google” to “57 Timeless Pieces of Copywriting Advice”, eBooks on writing and content marketing strategy, courses, a podcast, and, of course, a blog. “The Write Blog” is regularly updated with long-form blog posts that will teach you about SEO, storytelling, copy editing . . . you name it. You can also check out some examples of the in-house design work.
