The Trials and Tribulations of Hiring a Ghost Writer - A Guide

by Bill Platt

Published on this site: July 19th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

You have heard that one of the very best ways to get exposure for your online business is to write and distribute your own articles. Another exceptional method to get exposure for your business is to create and develop your own ezine/newsletter.

CROSSING THE BRIDGE OF THE DECISION

For a lot of people, knowing that these two methods are as effective as they are leads to the decision to get started. Once the decision to get started has been made, the only decision leftto make is to decide on a topic that will gain the webmaster the best results for his or her time. Once this marketing decision has been made, the webmaster will sit down and get to work creating articles or their newsletter.

For other people, deciding on the topic is only the beginning of the agony in the process.

DO YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO WRITE YOUR OWN MATERIALS?

I have heard the arguments many times before. "I am not a writer. I cannot do that. It is not an option for me."

My brother used to tell me that he could not be a writer... That was many years ago when I first started my own online business.

I always told him what I had always told everyone else. I told him that if he can have a conversation with another human being, then he could write. I told him that he should write as he speaks. And, when he was finished with his story, he should use Microsoft Word to spellcheck his work. MS Word can serve as a steady crutch for most people who don't have good grammar or spelling skills.

I have always said that most people do not lack the skills to become a decent writer. What they lack is the confidence in their own ability to communicate well with others.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

Three years down the road, I was talking to my mom on the phone and she mentioned that my brother was ghost writing for other people. Imagine my shock in learning that I could not talk him into writing for profit, and then he came to do it on his own. In fact, it turns out that he used ghost writing to pay for his living expenses while he went back to college to finish his master's degree.

DECIDING ON A GHOST WRITER

For those people who just cannot believe in their own skills, or those who simply do not have the time to write for themselves, many look to a ghost writer to help produce materials for the promotion of their businesses.

Many challenges face those who make the decision to pursue employing a ghost writer.

• Price of Service
  
  Too many clients lose the battle of selecting a good ghost writer by putting too much emphasis on the cost of the service being provided.
  
  Let's face it, different writer's demand different prices. More often than not, the price of the service is a strongindicator of the value of the work being provided.
  
  
• Writing Skills and Commitment of Writer
  
  Just because they tell you they are a professional writer, does not mean that they will do professional work when you pay for them to do so.
  
  Even I have hired other writers to help me to fill client orders. And from personal experience, I can share with you that getting "writing samples" from writers is not always a good indicator of the skills or commitment of the writer who wants your job.
  
  When I hire a writer to do a job because I don't have the time to do it myself, and then I spend more time editing the work than I would have spent creating the work, there is a problem. I have taken losses on several jobs because the writers I had hired to help me had done such crappy work.
  
  
• Ability of Writer to Match Client Needs
  
  A skilled ghost writer can match the needs of any client, on any topic. A skilled ghost writer is also a skilled researcher. When they do not know the topic that they have been employed to write about, they will do the necessary research to learn the topic and to turn out a good product.
  
  
• Good Communication Between Client and Writer
  
  The ability of both the client and writer to communicate with one another is vital. The client must clearly communicate to the writer their needs and desires for the finished product.
  
  A skilled ghost writer is not necessarily a mind reader, and he or she should not be expected to be one.
  
  If you want to hire a ghost writer who does not want to speak with you about what you actually want in your ghost written work, then move on to a writer who will take the time to communicate with you. The writer should know in advance what message you want to communicate with your readers and any quirks or considerations you want to use in those communications.
  
  Your ghost writer is your mouthpiece, so your ghost writer should know as much about you as possible, and they should know how you would like to see your information communicated.
  
  
• Editing Process
  
  Since the ghost writer you hire is your "paid mouthpiece", they should be able to communicate your message in a way that you believe they should. If you have communicated with your writer well, editing will be a quick and painless process. Your writer will send you the final edit, and you will sign off on it or ask for a couple of minor fixes.
  
  If you have not communicated your ideas with the writer well, or you have simply selected the wrong ghost writer to handle your job, then the editing process can become very painful.
  
  The writer's commitment to task is determined sometimes by the level of pay that you are offering to the writer, and more often, it is indicative of the writer's integrity. Keep in mind that if you have forced the writer to accept a pay level inconsistent with what they believe their skills are worth, you will pay for that decision in the quality of work you receive from them and in the process of bringing the final product to the level of professionalism you wish to convey to your readers.

If you find that you have to hire someone else to edit the final product to taste, then either you will have failed to pay your writer well, you will have failed to communicate with your writer well, or you will have done a terrible job in selecting the most appropriate writer for your job.

When all is said and done, there are literally thousands of people out there who try to pass themselves off as professional writers, and then there are thousands more who are exceptional writers who will be good for your tasks.

PRE-WRITTEN ARTICLES ARE ANOTHER GOOD OPTION

If you shop around, you can find companies that offer pre-written articles that you can purchase full- or partial- rights to use for your purposes. Some companies will sell the same pre-written article to dozens of people, and some companies will sell one article to only one person.

The primary advantage in buying a pre-written article is that you will not have to suffer the process of selecting and employing the right ghost writer for your task. With a pre-written article catalog, you can go in and look at articles that have already been written, and if you like it, you can buy it on the spot.

Most often, pre-written articles are a lower cost option than having articles custom written for you.

Bill Platt is the owner of thePhantomWriters.com. In July of 2005, TPW officially restarted its ghost writing activities. Register to shop their Catalog of Pre-Written Articles and know that they will only sell your article to one person - you. If you write your own articles, you can use Bill's article distribution service to get your reprint articles distributed to 17.000+ publishers and webmasters. http://thePhantomWriters.com