Content Refined Review: The Best Blog Writing Service?

Content Refined is an end-to-end content service designed especially for niche and authority website builders.

They have half a dozen different content services, but end-to-end means they can do everything from keyword research to clicking publish on a post.

This type of content agency is great for those with little time. If you need experts to take some or all of the weight of content production, Content Refined could be the agency you need.

We've ordered two pieces of very different content for two different sites in order to review Content Refined. One's about squirrels, and one's about personal website examples!

Putting Content Refined To The Test

I ordered two pieces of content to test out Content Refined's service. One article is for Niche Pursuits and one is for our public niche site, Own The Yard.

For Niche Pursuits, we gave them the keyword ‘personal website examples' and asked for 2000 – 2500 words. For Own The Yard, we gave them the keyword ‘can squirrels eat chocolate' and asked for 1200 – 1500 words.

The ordering process was very easy, and the experience very pleasant – they did know it was for this review though! However, something tells me it's like this for all customers.

Because they have been doing this for a while now, they have the processes and systems in place to make ordering and receiving content smooth and seamless.

After placing the order, I received one minor question regarding intent for the ‘personal website examples' post. Beyond that, and giving them the login details for each site, there was nothing else to be done but wait to receive the articles!

I'll share links to where you can see the completed posts, and what I think of them, down below.

Content Refined Review

After ordering our content, we were lucky to have it back and ready to publish within 2 or 3 business days!

I think ordinarily it takes a bit longer, but I was late ordering the content for a deadline, and they kindly sped up the process.

Here are the articles for you to take a look at:

1. Personal website examples – on Niche Pursuits
2. Can squirrels eat chocolates? – on Own The Yard

Here are my thoughts on them.

Personal Website Examples

I am really happy with this piece of content.

The writer chose 14 perfect websites to feature in the piece and nicely summarized them and explained why they were chosen. I especially like the ‘takeaway' section from each example, which clearly gives the reader something to take away!

The post is clear, well-written, and free from any grammatical or spelling errors. It targets the keyword and other related keywords really well. It included good screenshots with alt text for each of the sites listed. They even added all of the internal links that you can see in the post!

The only things I needed to do before publishing:

• Fill out the Yoast SEO info
• Enter a meta-description
• Add an extra heading
• Create a featured image

But otherwise, everything was totally fine to be published as is!

Can Squirrels Eat Chocolate?

Again, this was another really good piece of content.

I asked for up to 1500 words and got back slightly more than this. It's impressive because these types of posts can be hard to fill out. Whether squirrels can eat chocolate or not is really a simple yes or no question. To be able to write 1500 words without being full of fluff and irrelevant is great!

I like the way the writer did clearly answer the question right at the beginning of the article and then went on to explain why (spoiler alert if you haven't read the article) squirrels should NOT eat chocolate.

The headings that were created are answering all the typical questions people will be searching for, and it's clear further keyword research was done. I like how they went on to share some of the other foods that are toxic and non-toxic for squirrels. Ideally, this will keep people on the page a bit longer.

As with the previous article, this one was:

• Free from spelling and grammar mistakes (as you'd expect!)
• Clearly written, answering the question accurately
• Very engaging
• Relevant images that suit the piece

And their internal linking is on point (they must be using Link Whisper…)!

Again, this piece has been published as we received it, so take a good look and evaluate it for yourself.

How To Outsource Content

You might be writing all the articles for your site now, but if you want to scale your business, eventually you'll have to look into outsourcing your website's content production.

There are three main ways site owners outsource content creation:

• Hire a full-time in-house writer
• Work with one or more freelance writers
• Use a blog writing service

Most of us won't consider hiring a full-time writer until our business is bringing in a lot of predictable revenue.

Alternatively, working with freelance writers can be effective, but it's also a process.

You need to find, hire and train the right people. Then you'll need to assign the work and ensure quality. The articles will need to be edited, formatted, and finished. On-page SEO factors will need to be considered.

If you're looking for a truly passive way to meet your content needs, that leaves a full-service content writing agency.

Content Refined is such an agency that can take control of the whole process for you, freeing up your time to focus on what you do best.

Content Refined

As I've said, Content Refined is an end-to-end, done-for-you content production solution.

They offer packages for producing, updating, and publishing content on your website, alongside a handful of other marketing services.

It was founded by Jon Gillham, creator of the blog Authority Website Income and co-founder of Motion Invest.

Jon has a lot of experience with niche websites and has multiple successful affiliate sites. Content Refined was actually born out of his need for a content production system for his own affiliate sites.

Jon's background is one of the most important points in favor of Content Refined. Unlike content mills like Textbroker, this agency was built from the ground up specifically for affiliate marketing and niche websites.

That's important because you don't want to just fill up a bunch of pages on your site with low-quality content. The goal is to publish content that will rank and become profitable.

Working With Content Refined

The best thing about Content Refined is that it can be a complete solution for content production.

You can hire them to do EVERYTHING for you – from keyword research to writing, editing, formatting, and posting.

That's pretty cool, right?

Content Refined primarily sells its services as part of recurring monthly content packages. However, it is possible to work with them on a one-off basis as well. You'll just need to request a custom quote.

With any plan you choose, you'll be assigned a project manager as your point of contact. It's their job to ensure that your order is fulfilled and published on your site.

Packages and Pricing

One of the big considerations with any content service is obviously the price.

If you're looking to find a long-term solution for your content production needs, Content Refined offers many different packages to match your needs and budget.

Here's what you get for each.

New Content Packages

The best way to grow your website is through consistent publishing of quality content.

Even if you're strapped for time, you'll still want to ensure you have content coming in regularly. Content Refined's packages are a great way to ensure these are scheduled out.

There are three different packages based on the number of posts you're looking for:

• 4 posts per month (4,000 words)
• 8 posts per month (8,000 words)
• 12 posts per month (12,000 words)

Most of Content Refined's packages include keyword research and titles for your articles. However, you can do your own keyword research and just hire them to produce a certain number of posts on a monthly basis instead.

These packages all include writing and editing, SEO optimization, and publishing on your website.

You'll get slightly better per-word rates when you commit to a larger number of posts with the Bulk Content Packages. And, if you commit to 12 months, you will get a 10% discount on any package you choose.

Okay, so what's the bottom line for picking a content package?

Well, unless you're absolutely positive you'll be using Content Refined for a full year – and you want to nab that 10% discount – you can just start off with a monthly plan and see how you enjoy working with them.

There's no extra benefit to the six-month package except for a longer-term content plan, but you can always move to that package later on.

Existing Content Upgrade Packages

Another service available from Content Refined is updating (or upgrading) the content you've already posted on your website.

These upgrade packages include an audit that will uncover the most valuable opportunities on your website.

I really like that this is an option for customers because it keeps the momentum going on older posts and maximizes their value.

Here are some of the main tasks Content Refined does as part of updating your existing posts:

• Adding 500 to 1000 words of new text
• Reviewing and editing them with a full-time professional editor
• Optimizing for search engines with a tool called MarketMuse
• Pushing the content live on your website

Like with brand-new content, you can completely outsource the process of upgrading old content. They will find opportunities and improve your posts, pushing the changes live on your site.

There's an upper word count limit of 5,000 words for the posts they take on at these prices.

This upgrade service may well be worth doing as a one-time project, capturing the biggest gains from updating existing content pieces.

Keyword Research Packages

In addition to its content packages, Content Refined provides three different keyword research packages.

If you have other ways to get content written, but want to outsource the keyword research, Content Refined can do it. They will do the keyword research and provide content plans of 10, 20, or 30 articles that you can write yourself or give to writers you've hired.

Content Refined also provides a detailed analysis of your site's keywords, backlinks, and articles, as well as your competitors' keywords, backlinks, and articles.

Content Refined's Tools

With all that said, I want to take a little time and point out that Content Refined utilizes some very high-end marketing tools as part of its process.

This software is pretty expensive for individuals with an online business or even small teams, so if you want to tap into the power of the best marketing tools out there, working with Content Refined is a smart way to do it.

I won't delve into all of the software too deeply, but this should give you a sense of the kind of research and optimization you can expect.

MarketMuse

Robots aren't taking over the world just yet, but AI and machine learning ARE playing a role in content planning. MarketMuse is a robust enterprise software suite for planning, analyzing, creating, and optimizing content for search engines.

Officially called an ‘AI Content Intelligence and Strategy Platform' MarketMuse analyzes thousands of other articles on a topic in real-time to tell you what yours is missing.

Content Refined primarily uses MarketMuse to help determine which posts on your website are the best candidates for getting updated. It's a cutting-edge tool that's great to have to support your business!

SEMRush

You've heard all about SEMRush before, but in a nutshell, this is the premier search engine marketing tool on the market.

It offers SEO optimization tools to analyze everything your business needs to grow an online presence: backlinks, historical trends, search traffic, keywords, and competitors.

Content Refined uses SEMRush for its keyword, backlink, and article analysis of your website, as well as your competitors' websites. It's an invaluable tool for seeing what competitors are ranking for.

If you want to learn more about SEMRush, check out our detailed SEMRush review.

SECockpit

SECockpit is another keyword research tool that Content Refined uses.

It's specifically designed to offer results that are useful for niche websites, fast. One way SECockpit stands out is that it pulls keywords from additional sources besides just Google, such as Amazon and YouTube.

Content Refined uses SECockpit to come up with low competition, high traffic keywords.

This is another tool that's pretty pricey for solopreneurs or small businesses but provides some great intel at scale when used in a marketing agency. To learn more about SECockpit and how Content Refined uses it, check out Authority Website Income's SECockpit review.

Get Content Refined

Should you use Content Refined?

Researching and writing content for your site is worthwhile in the beginning, but once you're familiar with a niche, it's time to start outsourcing content creation, especially if you are pressed for time!

As always, it depends, but I would break it down this way: If your time is currently stretched to the limit, and you want to hand off all content production tasks to keep up your site's growth, then the content writing service is a solid choice.

Having your project manager as a single point of contact is a huge time-saver, as is working with a group that's committed to regular publishing schedules as part of your content strategy.

They handle a LOT of content creation tasks for you with one simple monthly payment:

• Keyword research process (optional)
• Headline writing (optional)
• Creating a content plan (optional)
• Writing posts
• Editing posts
• Finding images
• SEO optimization
• Adding links
• Scheduling posts

All of this is fantastic. However, it does cost a bit more per word for them to provide this full service.

In other words, some of your money is going to project management – which is perfectly valid, if that's something you need.

If your main goal is quality content, there ARE alternatives for content writing that will cost less per word, but you will need to upload, format, and finish the posts yourself. On average, even without keyword research, you're paying about $0.08 per word with Content Refined.

This isn't terrible, but it's not inexpensive either.

Here are a few considerations for working with them:

• Can you identify other more valuable tasks to focus on besides writing the content yourself? If so, outsourcing to Content Refined makes perfect sense.
• Are you prepared to spend over $500 per month for at least six months? This will get you the best bang for your buck in terms of content production in the long run.
• You'll probably want to set aside some time for approving keywords and reviewing finished content.
• Determine your monetization strategy and any specific goals and metrics for your website, so that you can communicate these to your project manager.
• While you can outsource keyword research to Content Refined, it saves you a decent amount of money on your package if you do it yourself.

I hope this Content Refined review gives you an idea of whether the service would be a good fit for you and your content strategy. If you do decide to give it a shot, grab your 10% discount when you use the coupon code “spencer”!

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