Alternatives to Hiring a Content Writer for Your Shopify Store
·5 min read
You have four alternatives to hiring a content writer for your Shopify store: write the articles yourself, buy them one at a time from freelancers, draft them with an AI writing assistant, or use a blog automation platform that plans, writes and publishes them for you. If the goal of your blog is to bring buyers from Google and AI assistants every month without managing anyone, the automation platform is the only option that does the whole job. ecomrank does it for $99 a month for 30 articles, with a 7-day free trial.
Before comparing options, be clear about the job. A store blog brings customers when it does four things:
Answers what buyers search. Not topics you find interesting, but the questions people type before buying products like yours: how to choose, which one fits, how two options compare, how to use it.
Keeps publishing. One article answers one question. Your catalog raises hundreds, so the blog needs a steady flow, not a burst of three posts in January.
Sends readers to your products. Every article should link to the product it supports, so the reader is one click away from buying.
Goes live without you. If every article waits on you to brief, review, format and upload, the blog stops the week you get busy.
Most stores hire a writer for the second point and end up doing the other three themselves. Keep that in mind when you compare costs.
The alternatives compared
Option
Time you spend each month
Finds what buyers search
Keeps a steady pace
Links to your products
Publishes for you
How you pay
Hire a content writer
Briefing, reviewing, publishing
Only if you brief it
As long as you manage it
If briefed
Rarely
Salary or monthly fee
Write it yourself
Many hours per article
Your guess
Until you get busy
If you remember
No
Your time
Freelancers per article
Briefing, reviewing, publishing
No, you pick topics
Only if you keep ordering
If briefed
No
Per article
AI writing assistant
Prompting, fact checking, formatting, publishing
No
Only if you keep prompting
You add them
No
Monthly subscription plus your time
Blog automation (ecomrank)
Connect once
Yes, from your catalog and search data
One article a day
Built in
Yes
$99 a month for 30 articles
1. Write it yourself
Nobody knows your products better than you, and that shows in the writing. The problem is time. A useful article takes research, writing, editing, images and publishing, and running a store leaves little of it. When the store gets busy, the blog is the first thing to stop, usually before it starts to pay off.
Choose it if you enjoy writing and only want a few pieces, like your brand story or a buying guide for your bestseller.
2. Freelancers per article
Freelance marketplaces give you writers on demand, and good ones write well. But a freelancer delivers text, not a blog. You still decide what to write about, brief each article, check the facts, add links to your products and publish. Quality and availability vary from one writer to the next, so the pace depends on how much managing you are willing to do.
Choose it if you already know exactly which articles you need and have time to manage the writers.
3. AI writing assistant
A writing assistant turns a prompt into a draft in seconds. It removes the blank page, not the work. You still choose the topics, write the prompts, check every claim (assistants state made-up figures with confidence), add your product details and links, format, and publish. Without your catalog and real search data, the drafts tend to read like everyone else's.
Choose it if you want help drafting but intend to stay the editor and publisher of every article.
4. A blog automation platform: ecomrank
ecomrank replaces the whole chain, not just the writing:
You connect your store once. One-click install of the ecomrank Publisher app on Shopify, or the ecomrank plugin on WooCommerce.
ecomrank reads your catalog and finds the questions people search around your products, using real search volume, then groups them into topics with a main guide and supporting articles.
An article goes live on your blog every day, written in your store's language, scored for quality, checked to keep out unsourced figures, and linked to the products it supports.
It costs $99 a month, excluding VAT, for 30 articles, about $3.30 per article, with a 7-day free trial and one-click cancellation from your billing portal.
Choose it if you want your store to answer what buyers search, every month, without writing, briefing or uploading anything.
When hiring a writer still makes sense
A writer is worth it for work that needs a human voice: your founder's story, interviews with customers, opinion pieces, campaign copy. You can combine the two: automation covers the hundreds of buyer questions around the catalog, and a writer handles the few pieces that carry the brand's personality. You do not have to choose one forever.
FAQ
What is the cheapest way to get blog content for a Shopify store?
Writing it yourself costs no money but a lot of time. ecomrank costs $99 a month for 30 published articles, about $3.30 each, with planning, product links and publishing included. Freelancers and agencies charge per article or per month, on top of the time you spend managing them.
Will Google penalize articles written with AI?
Google's published guidance says it rewards helpful content however it is produced, and acts against content made mainly to manipulate rankings. An article that accurately answers what a buyer searched for is what Google wants to show.
Do I need SEO knowledge to use blog automation?
No. ecomrank chooses the topics from your products and from search data, writes and publishes the articles, and shows you in a dashboard what went live and how often Google shows it.
Can I keep a writer and use automation at the same time?
Yes. Automation covers the steady flow of buyer questions, and your writer can focus on brand stories and special pieces. They publish to the same blog.
