Many businesses these days are running full-time blogs to promote their products or spread awareness of their brands. The problem is that they are so busy running their companies that they don’t have time to write the content. Enter the blog ghostwriter, ready to fulfill your needs.
What is a blog ghostwriter, and what are their skills? Why do businesses hire companies with ghostwriting teams, and what budget should you have to employ your own? Find out more in our detailed guide below.
What Is A Blog Ghostwriter?
There’s a common misconception that a blog ghostwriter is the same as freelancers. Yet, the main difference between them is that freelancers publish under their names, and ghostwriters receive no credit for the articles. When it comes to the latter, the business hiring them with post content in the company name or one of their branded authors.
This practice isn’t illegal or unethical. Blog ghostwriters often accept these projects for money or don’t want their names associated with the topics. In the past, it was popular for ghostwriters to produce novels or short stories for published authors. Today, businesses hire them to write online content.
Why Businesses Hire Ghostwriters
The lack of time isn’t the only reason that companies employ blog ghostwriters. As a matter of fact, you’d be surprised to know that most CEOs and executives hire them for their content. There are plenty of ways that they receive a return of investment, such as product sales or affiliate programs.
Here are some of the top reasons you may hire a blog ghostwriter:
- Your focus is on your core business
- You have no experience with blog writing
- You’d rather pay for quality content for maximum returns
- You’re suffering from an extreme bout of writer’s block
- Content creation and SEO overwhelms you
- You want to improve your brand awareness
- You need an expert to execute your content strategy
So, why not employ a freelancer for the above? It doesn’t make business sense to attach an unknown name to your business blogs, mostly if they play no role in your company. Furthermore, you’ll build better brand exposure if it looks like the content comes from you.
The Talents Of An Excellent Blog Ghostwriter
Whether you hire a blog ghostwriter directly or engage with a company that provides blog writing services, you’ll want to look out for a specific skill set. Most writers will profess that they’re the best in the industry, but which talents should you look out for when it comes to blog content?
Fortunately, we have enough experience with blog ghostwriters and can share our knowledge with you.
While the content needs to be informative and bring value to the reader, the ghostwriters should have the creative talent to paint a picture with their words. On the other hand, you also need a team that can provide quality content within a set time. They also need to be flexible, being able to adapt to new project scopes.
The tone and voice are also essential for your target audience. Depending on your market, it could be formal or informal. Writing in the correct perspective will vary based on your goals. It’s also significant that the ghostwriters understand different localizations for the same language.
While we know you’d prefer writers who had extensive knowledge of your industry, you also want them to be inquisitive. A curious mind loves research, which means you have content covering every aspect of the subject matter. It helps if they have a keen interest in the topic, as you’ll end up with more value.
Here are a few more skills to look out for:
- Excellent discipline and scheduling
- Displays initiative and innovation
- Makes proposals that improve your business model
- The first drafts hardly need edits and meet the outline
- Understands SERPs, SEO, calls to action, meta information, etc.
HowTo Budget For A Blog Ghostwriter
We usually recommend dealing with a company that provides blog writing services rather than hiring writers directly. There’s less cost involved since the writers generally ask enormous fees to cover their expenses. A company offers a flat rate for all ghostwriters, which means you can budget accordingly.
So, how do you budget for ghostwriters? Well, it depends on several factors. The first element depends on the pay rate. Writers may charge per hour, leading to large fees if they take longer to produce content. Another approach is offering a rate per project, which has the drawback that you can’t increase the project scope unless you amend the agreement.
The method most businesses use is a rate per set number of words. In this way, you can increase or decrease the project size, with the price changing in proportion. You’ll also receive more value for your content, as the ghostwriter will make sure that every word counts.
If you set the word count per blog article, you can control how much you spend. It’s easier to estimate project costs and how much content you can assign. However, remember to calculate your potential return on investment.
Building The Relationship
When you find a company that provides valuable ghostwriting services, you should build upon your relationship to retain the partnership. The first step is establishing a contract and a Non-Disclosure Agreement to protect your rights for the new material. The last thing you want is the agency publicly laying claim to the articles.
You need to also set clear expectations from both sides. Communicate the overall vision of the blog as well as for the articles. It’s your choice if you want the ghostwriting agency involved with your content strategy or not.
There should be detailed deliverables for the projects. These include:
- Timelines for writing, editing, revisions, and submission
- Which team members are responsible for specific tasks
- What is expected from you as the client and the agency
- The overall budget for the project
Feel free to ask if you can interview the blog ghostwriter. You’ll gain a better understanding of the skills that they bring to the table and create a good relationship between you. In most cases, the agency will assign you a project manager to deal with when there are several writers involved.
