Guide to Hiring a Ghostwriter
What do presidents, candidates for political office, political debaters and Internet Marketers have in common? Writers. We all need fresh content.
The political leader outsources to a speech writer; the Internet Marketer hires a freelance article writer. Both entities are ghostwriters who take no credit for his work. The speaker or webmaster takes all the glory.
Ghost (speech) writers have been utilized by our political leaders for 100′s of years. Perhaps you’ve heard that Alexander Hamilton was the speech writer for George Washington. If that is true, then Alexander Hamilton is probably the most famous ghostwriter of all times.
A ghost writer is a writer who works for compensation and upon completion of the project releases all rights to the body of work. Virtually all public figures use ghostwriters to write their memoirs, correspondence and speeches. Many webmasters have discovered the benefits of using ghostwriters to write their articles, especially those who don’t have the time or talent to keep their web site updated with fresh, custom content.
We will explore and explain the process of hiring a ghostwriter to write those original articles for your website. Following are a few points to help with the process:
Be prepared. Do not contact a ghostwriter without being aware of what you need. Do you require technical data? Will the articles necessitate in-depth research? How many words do you want? What idea do you want the article to impart?
Don’t tell the ghostwriter to “write me an article on dieting” – a subject that has thousands of subtopics and methods. If you don’t understand what you want I can guarantee you the ghostwriter will not delight you, no matter how much they charge or how experienced they are. They are writers, not sorcerers.
Be professional. If you need to hire a freelance writer but you are clueless as to how much they charge or how they work you could end up losing your shirt. Hop over to Google and search for “custom articles”, “freelance writers” and “ghost writers” and see what they are charging.
Some will publish their rates on the Internet. When you find what the “going rate” for ghosted articles is you can develop your budget for the expense. Or, after the research you may determine you can’t afford a ghost writer.
Ask for an estimate. Many times internet sites will publish their rates so you can easily determine what the project will cost. At other times you may need to ask for a quotation.
Or, perhaps you are advertising on one of the freelance sites such as elance.com or getafreelaner.com. As indicated in Item #1, Be Prepared. Cover the following points in your query or posting: a) the length of the Article (i.e. how many words); b) topic (or title) for each article; c) your Deadline; d) how much you will be able to pay; and, e) how you plan to pay them (paypal, google, etc.).
Be Very Specific. What do you want? Whether you believe it or not there is a difference in “content articles” for your visitors to read and “keyword articles” written to improve your SEO (search engine optimization).
Perhaps you want both. If so, does the freelancer have expertise in people-pleasing content that will also delight the search engines and boost your search engine ranking?
Keep in mind your profit margin. Never overpay for your articles. Be sure to keep good records of income vs. expenditures and don’t forget that the reason you are hiring a ghost writer to write those custom articles for your website is to increase the flow of traffic, hence the earnings, to your website.
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