Writing isn’t for everyone. The sooner over-ambitious business owners realize this and stop blogging, the better.

If you want your business to consistently put out material that is going to bring traffic to your site, you need professional writing done. You need the skills of a talented copywriter. Finding one isn’t hard; there are hundreds of thousands of copywriters looking for consistent work. You can find them on popular sites like Elance or Odesk.

But how can you tell if a copywriter is going to be a good fit? How can you tell if they are really going to bring results?

Here are some ways to find out:

• Visit their own website and read every page. If you aren’t pleased with the way they are representing themselves, chances are you won’t like the way they’d represent you.
• Check their references and look at the content on the site of some of their other clients. When reading the content, look for bland writing and grammatical errors.
• Test them on the fly. If they come in for an interview, have a short piece that you have written at hand. Ask them how they would improve it. When they make suggestions, ask questions as to their reasoning. A good copywriter will be glad to explain themselves. Alternatively, you likely don’t want to get involved with a copywriter that gets defensive when you ask questions.
• Can they make sense out of chaos? That is, if you handed them several sheets of paper with hurried notes on it (and little instruction) could they create something logical and readable out of them?
• What is their personality like? While many writers can switch up their personas in their writing, you may want to steer clear of copywriters who approach everything as a serious and rigid affair. Liveliness in a copywriter usually translates into the copy they create.
• During conversations, your copywriter should always be asking questions to milk more meaning from your ideas. Also, try to keep tabs on how they speak to you when explaining their own thought process. Are they speaking to you as if you were an equal or a child?

If you’re lucky, you’ll land a great copywriter than you can develop a long-term working relationship with. Just make sure your interests align and that you are comfortable working together in a fast paced environment.