Here’s a little secret not many people know: many of the blog posts, articles, and books (and other content pieces) you read aren’t written by the people whose names are in the by-line or on the cover. They’re written by ghostwriters—people who are paid to produce material for others without taking any credit.
Now, you’ve probably suspected at one time or another that super-busy CEOs, A-list celebrities, and high name-recognition politicians probably didn’t write all the content that’s out there in their names—and you’d be right. These kinds of people are generally (a) far too busy making (and spending) money to sit down and write a book—or even a blog post—and/or (b) most of them don’t have the kind of writing skills necessary to produce a well-written piece of content even if they had the time.
So, they hire someone else to do it. The celebrity lends his or her well-known name to the piece (guaranteeing that it will get noticed and/or sell) and gets a well-written piece in return for paying the ghostwriter’s fee. Everyone’s happy.
But beyond these “A” and “B” level celebrities, you might be surprised to learn that much of the other online content you read isn’t written by the people it’s ascribed to, either.
For example, here are a few places where ghostwriters write most (if not all of) the content, yet someone else’s name goes on the work:
- company websites
- blog posts
- newsletters
- articles on social media platforms like LinkedIn
The truth is, communicating to your audience is the lifeblood of most businesses, especially “expert businesses” like consulting firms. And another truth is that writing is tough, and most people don’t do it very well.
And that’s exactly why ghostwriters exist and why ghostwriting has become one of the biggest businesses in this information age.
Ghostwriting Services
Before we get into a discussion of how you can use a ghostwriter in your consulting business, let’s take a look at what, exactly, a good ghostwriter does.
A good ghostwriter:
- Writes Well—Duh! If you’re going to hire someone to write something for you and your name is going to go on it, you want the person to write well. Most ghostwriters are going to be above average writers, or they wouldn’t have gone into the field, but still, quality will vary from one ghostwriter to the next. Ask for samples (more on this below) and look for someone whose writing you enjoy reading.
- Matches the Style and Tone of the “Writer”—A good ghostwriter is flexible and can write in various styles and tones of voice. If you want the piece to be “professional” in tone and use more academic vocabulary, the ghostwriter should be able to do it. If, on the other hand, you want to piece to be playful and include pop culture references, the ghostwriter should be able to do that, as well. The best ghostwriters can match pretty much any style you want.
- Edits Well—Writing is one thing, but editing is another thing entirely. There are people who write well but need someone to “clean up” behind them because they don’t see their own grammar, punctuation, spelling, and usage errors very well. There are also people who are fantastic editors but couldn’t write an interesting original sentence if they tried. What you want when hiring a ghostwriter, of course, is someone who does both well. This means that you get a well-written piece and you don’t have to worry about spending time fixing mistakes after the piece is handed over to you.
- Comes Up with Content Ideas in Conjunction with the “Writer”—A competent ghostwriter can write what you tell him to write and do it well. But a really good ghostwriter will also look at your business and suggest other content ideas he could write that would be a good fit for your audience. Having a creative writer brainstorm with you can improve the quality of your content and help fill in the “dry spells” when you can’t think of a good idea yourself.
- Is Easy and Pleasant to Work With—Of course, you want anyone you work with, whether it’s an employee, colleague, or sub-contracted worker like a ghostwriter, to be pleasant and easy to work with. Business is hard enough. No one needs any extra drama added to the equation.
- Works Quickly and Meets Deadlines—More than likely, you need content produced regularly in order to raise your credibility and authority in your field. You may produce some portion of this content yourself and hire the rest of it out to a ghostwriter. And often, you will need a piece of content to be created quickly to meet a deadline. This is when a ghostwriter who writes quickly and meets her deadlines is worth her weight in gold.
How Can a Ghostwriter Help You Grow Your Business?
Now that you know what you’re looking for in a good ghostwriter, let’s talk about how your consulting business can benefit from hiring a ghostwriter.
What can you expect from sub-contracting out your content writing to a good ghostwriter? Here’s a list of some of the main benefits:
- Builds Your Credibility and Authority in Your Field—The more good content that’s out there with your name on it, the more credibility accrues to you. When you’re seen as being credible, and as someone who is out there teaching and opining in your field, you gain authority.
- Helps You Generate More Sales—If you have information products for sale, the more content you have out there with links back to your products, the more sales you’ll make.
- Gets You Speaking Gigs—Most consultants make most of their money from speaking and training gigs. The more content you have out there with your name on it, the more people in charge of hiring speakers will see you. They will see that you are an authority in the field, and they’ll want to hire you to speak at their events.
- Improves Your SEO with Guest Posts—Having blog posts out there on reputable sites with large audiences is one of the fastest ways to build name recognition and authority in your field. And you can link from these posts back to your own website or products and services pages.
- Builds Your Brand with On-Site Posts—Blog posts on your own website (your “home base” or “hub”) also sell your expertise to site visitors. You never want to neglect your hub. Start with building content on your own website and build outward from there.
- Spreads Awareness of Your Work with Social Media Posts—Social media is a great way to “amplify” the other content out there with your name on it. A good, attention-grabbing post linking back to a content piece can greatly multiply the number of eyeballs the piece gets. You can have the ghostwriter do the content piece and you can then do the social media posts pointing back to it, or you can hire the ghostwriter to do both (not all will do both).
- Allows You to Work on Other Aspects of Your Business—If you have a ghostwriter producing any portion of your content—or all of it—it frees up your time to work on other aspects of your business. The more you have the ghostwriter do, the more time becomes available for these other tasks. Of course, the more you have the ghostwriter do for you, the more you’ll have to pay him, so it’s a balancing act.
As you can see from the list of benefits above, there are many ways a ghostwriter can benefit your business and speed up your business growth. If content production isn’t really your “thing” but you still want all the benefits of having “produced” that content, you owe it to yourself to look further into the possibility of hiring a ghostwriter.
Ghostwriter for Hire: Hiring a Ghostwriter for Your Consulting Business
If you’ve decided after reading this post that you’re interested in hiring a ghostwriter, I caution you to do your due diligence and research multiple ghostwriting services online. As part of your due diligence, I would suggest that you follow the four guidelines below as you look for the best fit for your business.
- Ask for Samples—When you first make contact with your prospective ghostwriter, ask her for samples of her work. Just be prepared to hear the answer, “I’m sorry, I can’t share any of my ghostwriting because I sign a non-disclosure agreement when I take on each job (this is something you should ask a ghostwriter to do, too).” If she won’t/can’t share any of her ghostwriting for this reason, ask for other samples of her writing. Look at the writing on her website. Has she written content in her own name as the owner of a ghostwriting company or company that does ghostwriting as part of its services? She should be willing to direct you to samples outside of her ghostwriting work, and you should definitely check these out. A good ghostwriter could be crucial to your business growth, so you don’t want to hire someone without having a sense of the quality of her work.
- Give Them a “Test” or “Spec” Assignment—If you have a short writing task coming up like a blog post, a website page revision, etc., ask the prospective ghostwriter to do it in parallel with you doing your own version. A “spec” (speculation) assignment means that you aren’t paying the writer for it. You’re getting a real-time sample of his ability to do the kind of work you’ll need him to do if you hire him. Also, give the writer a not-unreasonable deadline to see how he works when he needs to produce something quickly. If he does as good a job as you did on the same assignment (or better), you may have a winner.
- Look for Someone Who is Already an Expert (or at Least Knowledgeable) in Your Field—There are “general” ghostwriters who do ghostwriting on a variety of different topics, and some of them are good (I’ve done ghostwriting in a number of fields, myself), but it only makes sense to look for someone who knows your specific field well. For example, I help independent educational consultants grow their businesses, and as part of that, I offer many marketing and copywriting services—one of which is ghostwriting. Why might an educational consultant be better off hiring me to write about education topics as compared to a “general” ghostwriter? Because I was a teacher at different grade levels for 14 years, because I worked at a state department of education, and because I was an educational consultant myself for 18 years. In other words, I know education, not just writing. So, a consultant hiring me to ghostwrite for her on education topics knows that there won’t be any “lag time” while I get up to speed on the subject matter. I can just hit the ground running and get the job done. So, whatever field you’re in, look for someone who can do the same.
- Make Sure He or She is Moderately Priced—There are different pricing models out there and there are, as in any field, cheaper ghostwriters, moderately-priced ghostwriters, and high-priced ghostwriters. I suggest you look for someone in the middle on pricing. Here’s why: you could go super cheap and hire someone off one of the “content farm” gig websites like guru.com, fiverr.com, or upwork.com, but I’ve tried those a few times when I was too swamped to get all my own writing done, and I can tell you that I was never satisfied with the quality of work. In general, if you try to go super-cheap, the old saying “you get what you pay for” comes into play. On the other end of the spectrum, I know some ghostwriters who are considered to be in the “cream of the crop” category and they definitely charge a premium price. But is their work any better than a moderately-priced, competent ghostwriter? Not in my experience. Plus, the average independent consultant is not going to be able to pay their fees. So, my advice is to shoot for the mid-range on price and do your due diligence to find someone who is compatible with you personality-wise and checks all the boxes above. There are a lot of good writers out there. You just have to take your time and do your homework to find yours.
Alright, that does it for our deep dive into the topic of ghostwriting. I hope you’ve picked up some new information and now have a better feel for whether hiring a ghostwriting would be a good move for you or not.
If you ARE interested in hiring a ghostwriter, hit me up on my Contact page and tell me what you’re looking for. I just may be able to fit you into my schedule.
