Contently vs. Worksuite

It's helpful for top of marketing funnel writing that we can sometimes lose sight of because we are so ingrained in the product day to day. Contently is also helpful for long written pieces and ebooks that will take a significant amount of employee time to put together. I avoid using Contently for mid to bottom funnel marketing writing because my team will often have greater insight into the product function or use-case or product release, making them more adroit to the tone of the written piece and able to produce the content quickly.

Incentivized

We haven't found another system that can do all that Shortlist can do (payments, tax paperwork, profile management, project management, on-boarding, etc...) but it doesn't mean we always love using Shortlist. Shortlist is cumbersome to work in and requires LOTS of redundant clicking. Something as simple as being able to right-click to open on any profile/page/account/link would save hours in a week where as now to get to two side-by-side items on some lists, you have to click back a page, re-load, and scroll down to select the next option. I appreciate that Shortlist manages all the tax paperwork and has created for us a on-boarding system that flows nicely and allows multiple team members to manage their piece of the process.

Incentivized

• Consolidating my work in one place to make my work life easier
• Contently is unique from other content marketing organizational tools in one key way. It hands you a network of freelance professionals eager for delegated work.
• You can search through a database of professionals to find the perfect person for your given project. Find individuals in your budget offering the exact skills and experience you need.

Incentivized

• Shortlist allows us to pay our freelancers without having to personally manage the back end paperwork of payroll
• Shortlist handles all the year end tax paperwork creation and distribution

Incentivized

• I have been using it for 3.5 years, and have had no response from potential clients.
• The portfolio section is pretty easy to use, but I don't love the format.
• Since I'm not a client, I don't know just how easy it is for them to find new freelancers or how often it is actually used.
• Probably more suited for some types/concentrations of freelance writers, like finance, tech, or healthcare.

Incentivized

• Shortlist only allows for minor customizations to their platform. It would be great if each company could create their own view/usage set for the system.
• The help chat box needs some work for sure. It takes days for someone to respond if they ever respond and often there is nothing they can do to remedy the issue at hand.
• Payments should be able to be made every day, not just on Fridays.

Incentivized

I'm giving them a 10, but honestly, I've never reached out to them. I do see them putting out regular content on social media, so they might be responsive to questions there as well as regular customer support. In their posts and communication, they do seem to value their community, so hopefully, they have good customer support. And I've seen them asking for pitches from their community to publish well-paid articles during this stressful coronavirus time, and I really appreciate that.

Incentivized

30-40% of the time there is no response when you contact the chat/help feature. 30-40% of the time if they do respond, it is to say they can't do anything about the issue. Maybe 20% of the time the chat is actually helpful, but that seems like a high estimate when I think about my experience asking for support.

Incentivized

I also opened an account with Skyword in 2019, which is a similar service. The person that recommended it was a travel writer, and since I've done that as well, I thought it might be a better fit. To this point, I've received no work from it either, and don't hold out a lot of hope. As previously mentioned, where I think Contently does well is by giving you an online portfolio, additional resources like a blog for learning, and a rates database for publications.

Incentivized

We've never found another platform that does exactly what Shortlist does in terms of payments, taxes, project management, and on-boarding. We use other sites to source our new vendors (like Indeed, craigslist, etc...) but ultimately we direct all those applicants to our onboarding in Shortlist. I wish some of the more "minor" platform issues we've had over the last year were fixed sooner (or fixed at all) but it does the job!

Incentivized

• Contently contributors have produced some great inbound marking posts and creative materials saving our marketing team significant time allowing them to focus on more strategic plans for the business.
• The amount of time Contently has saved our internal creative writing staff has more than paid for itself!

Incentivized

• Shortlist allows us to pay people and provide tax information which is a positive.
• Shortlist doesn't integrate with many other platforms which causes us huge delays in employee work time which is a negative.

Incentivized