I’m thinking of taking the dive into hiring a writer for a blog to see how it works out. They wouldn’t have any stake in the website other than providing articles. (sidenote, I’ll still be writing articles here at 45n5).

I have a few questions I’d like to ask you if you’ve been down this road before:

How do you guarantee you have 100% rights to the articles they write for you? For instance if you have a falling out with the writer, how can you make sure they don’t claim ownership to everything they wrote for you and post it elsewhere on the net?

Who picks the topic of the post? Certainly any arrangement is possible but does it cost more if the writer is responsible for finding the topic to write about? I would prefer they pick the topic.

Do you recommend a good writer that has some available work load? Tim has a good list of freelance websites but I would prefer going with somebody on recommendation if possible.

What are the tax implications (for US “employers”)? I’m curious for those that use outsourced authors how you categorize the expense and if you are conscious of keeping your spend for one author under $600 for the year to avoid using a 1099?

I’m thinking of 10 posts per month at $5 as a ball park figure to offer somebody ($50 per month per blog), is that reasonable? (incidentally that is exactly $600 per year)

Any other thoughts or advice? Thanks.